Pasta primavera with parma ham

Ingredients

150g French beans
2 spring onions, chopped
40g butter
1 tsp olive oil
225g baby carrots
175g leeks, chopped
300ml single cream
1 tsp lemon juice
25g parmesan cheese, grated
3 tbsp freshly chopped basil
6 slices of parma ham, chopped

Trim and halve the French beans. Bring a large saucepan of lightly salted water to the boil for 4-5 minutes. Drain the beans and briefly rinse under cold running water.

Heat the butter and oil in a large non-stick frying pan. Add the parma ham and cook for 2 minutes. Add the baby carrots and cook for 2 minutes, then stir in the leeks and spring onions and cook for 10 minutes stirring, until the vegetables are almost tender.

Stir the cream and lemon juice into the vegetables and bubble over a gentle heat until the sauce is slightly reduced and the vegetables are cooked.

Add the beans, parmesan cheese and basil to the sauce. Stir for 30 seconds or until the cheese has melted and the vegetables are hot. Add the sauce to cooked pasta, then toss gently to mix and season to taste with salt and pepper. Serve.

Wanted something relatively light to eat after a dim sum at Royal China (although it’s odd that I started getting hungry at around 17:00 despite eating a fair bit of dim sum. Maybe it’s because I didn’t have breakfast). So I decided to make this pasta dish, full of vegetables, nutrients and fibre to balance the unhealthiness of dim sum. Didn’t have any parma ham, and used bacon instead.

I love the taste of this dish; the creaminess of the bacon sauce, the sweetness of the vegetables, and the crunchiness of the carrots and long beans.

Lainey: are you fine with farfelle?:P

Classic minestrone

From Let’s Cook Italian & Pasta
Serves 6-8
Ingredients

25g butter
3 tbsp olive oil
3 rashers streaky bacon
1 large onion, peeled
1 garlic clove, peeled
1 celery stick, trimmed
2 carrots, peeled
400g canned tomatoes
1.1 litre chicken stock
175g green cabbage, finely shredded
50g French beans, trimmed and halved
3 tbsp frozen petits pois
50g spaghetti broken into short pieces
salt and freshly grond black pepper
Parmesan cheese to garnish

Heat the butter and olive oil together in a large saucepan. Chop the bacon and add to the saucepan. Cook for 3-4 minutes, then remove with a slotted spoon and reserve.

Finely chop the onion, garlic, celery and carrots and add to the saucepan, one ingredient at a time, stirring well after each addition. Cook and cook gently for 8-10 minutes until the vegetables are softened.

Add the chopped tomatoes, with their juice and the stock, bring to the boil, then cover the saucepan with a lid, reduce the heat and simmer gently for about 20 minutes.

Stir in the cabbage, beans, peas and spaghetti pieces. Cover and simmer for a further 20 minutes, or until all the ingredients are tender. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Return the cooked bacon to the saucepan and bring the soup to the boil. Serve the soup immediately with Parmesan cheese and plenty of crusty bread to accompany it.

I have always thought that the distinctive taste of minestrone soup is from beef stock. I only realised that it is actually the bacon that gives it that wonderful flavour when I first cooked it. I think my minestrone soup definitely tastes better than the canned ones!