Recipe Wednesday: pasta bolognaise

Veggie pasta bolognaise is one of my longstanding favourites, but I don’t make it as often as I used to, largely because I’ve developed so many other favourites that have become go-tos as well.

Fusilli bolognaise
Fusilli bolognaise – the latest version (I’ve tweaked the way I make it a lot over the years, most recently to make it more Slimming World friendly).

It’s nice and simple, just like all the pasta dishes I do.  Put some chopped carrots on to boil for twenty-five minutes; ten minutes in, start boiling some pasta in another pot.  Meanwhile, start frying some chopped onions and tomatoes in Fry Light.  Once the onions and tomatoes have reduced down sufficiently, add a bag of Quorn mince to the frying pan, and stir-fry until it’s browned.

For the sauce, I make my standard pasta sauce: passata, tomato puree, lemon juice, ground black pepper, dried basil, dried oregano, hot chili powder and Very Lazy chopped garlic, all to taste.

Once everything’s cooked, drain the pasta and carrots and mix them with the onions, tomatoes, Quorn mince and passata sauce in a large pot.  Shower with grated parmesan (30g per person for a Slimming World Healthy Extra A) to serve.

Recipe Wednesday: ‘chicken’ pesto

Back doing Recipe Wednesdays again – ’cause I’m hungry, and I can’t cook tea until Geth’s done the dishes.  Sadly I’m not making ‘chicken’ pesto tonight ’cause I don’t have enough syns left before weigh-in tomorrow, but I thought I’d share this recipe anyway.

'Chicken' pesto
‘Chicken’ pesto, or spirali alla genovese if I’m being fancy.

It’s another super-simple pasta recipe.  Boil some pasta for fifteen minutes, and five minutes in, start boiling another pot of chopped mangetout, chopped green beans and garden peas (make sure there’s plenty of the first two if you’re doing Slimming World).  Meanwhile, fry some Quorn chicken style pieces (or you could use real chicken if you’re not veggie) in Fry Light until it’s nice and crispy.

Once everything’s cooked, mix it all together in a giant pan then stir in a jar of supermarket pesto* (12 syns a jar, so 6 syns per person if you’re cooking for two like I am).  Shower with parmesan (30g for a Healthy Extra A) and serve.

This is a longtime favourite of Geth’s, so I make it at least once a week if I’ve got the syns going spare!

*I’ve tried making my own syn-free pesto but it never tastes right!