Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Pepper Pasta with capers and rocket

We are on the lookout for a cheap pasta making machine as we have fallen in love with the fresh pasta that I buy from the markets near my work. It’s a pepper fettucine and it's peppery and spicy and absolutely delicious. We use really simple sauces with this pasta because you don't want to hide the flavour of the pasta unlike the pasta that you buy from the supermarket.

Ingredients:
Capers
Zest from two lemons
Lemon juice (from one lemon - save juice from the other to taste)
Fresh basil
Rocket
Olive oil
Parmasan
500g Pepper pasta

The proportions of each are really as to your own taste; we are both massive fans of capers so we add heaps (I have even marked in my diary when caper bushes are available from Diggers this year: Wednesday 2 September – for all you caper lovers out there).

Add the pasta to a large pot of boiling water:



Heat a frypan and in some olive oil, gently heat the capers, adding the lemon zest and the basil:



When the pasta is almost done, add the rocket so that it wilts slightly. When the pasta is cooked to taste, drain but keep two tablespoons of the water and return it to the pot. Add half the pasta, then the sauce mixture to the pot, placing the remaining pasta on top, pour on the lemon juice and toss through. Have some parmasan ready and that's it:



This is our current favourite. I made a version of it once and Sim has since taken it on and made it her own…she is much better at putting flavours together then me…I'm a recipe follower and the slightest variation can throw me a curve ball but Sim just pulls meals out of nowhere and is really good at finding a substitute that works if we don't have the right ingredient.

One of the great things about this recipe is it is such an easy meal to cook when you need to whip something up quickly as it only takes as long as the pasta takes to cook (which takes about 8 – 10 minutes) and 500 grams of pasta will easily do us for lunches the next day as well. I know the process will become much, much longer when we attempt to make our own pasta but once we get our own caper bush and sow some rocket, we will be able to contribute most of the ingredients ourselves and we're really looking forward to that.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

That pasta and meal looks so nice, yet so simple. I have been toying with making our own pasta of late, but will wait for Kim to get better before giving it a go. I just don't have the time at the moment!

Gav

Veggie Gnome said...

Making your own pasta is a lot of fun, very easy, and actually pretty quick. Do go for it!

I usually make the dough some time in the morning or at lunch time. It takes only a few minutes to make. Cover and let rest. An hour before starting tea (or even closer than that) I get the pasta machine out and put it through. Only takes a few minutes. I make it fresh for each meal. So no big quantities to struggle with. :)

The peppery fettucchini sounds great. Must try it. With your sauce. Thanks.