Category: Pasta
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Crab Linguine with Tomato and White Wine
Toulouse is an unusual beast. It proudly displays its terracotta buildings as a badge of honour that declares it belongs in the Mediterranean. I mean, you won’t spot any buildings that glow in the sun in wet and windy Wales for instance. So, you come to Toulouse, bedazzled and seduced. And yet now, this city…
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Easy Spaghetti Vongole
Many great spaghetti dishes come together in under 15 minutes. Aside from a slow-cooked ragu or a Bolognese, a spaghetti dinner gives you little time to prepare yourself, whether that’s finishing an email, video game or conversation before it’s on the table, steaming its way into a gluey tangle. Carbonara, spaghetti aglio e olio (the…
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Spaghetti with Prawns, Whisky and Mushrooms
In my opinion, it’s not a habit to serve spaghetti with prawns and whisky. Correct me if I’m wrong. To me, whisky is that unfathomable drink, ferociously harsh and unapologetically alcoholic, that lawyers manage to knock back without even a grimace in courtroom dramas. But this unusual combination of spaghetti with prawns and whisky sauce…
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Quick and easy one-pot pasta
This is a story of two extremes. On one hand there is my compulsion to be extravagant and a show off, versus my need for ease and convenience. This dichotomy is reminiscent of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, except focused on food rather than evil. One will overrule the other in the end. And it’s…
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Lentil and Olive Ragu
I don’t mean to break any hearts but here is a cold hard truth – it is a myth that you lose weight while travelling. In fact, it is more likely you will gain weight. I know this because of my reflection in any full-length mirror is ultimately a depressing sight these days. There have…
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Authentic Italian Bolognese
Dear reader, I had an elaborate plan for this blog post. Something seasonal and adventurous to compete with the high-brow food you find on Instagram these days. Reader, I was going to give you the recipe for butternut squash gnocchi, drizzled in rosemary and hazelnut butter, and a sprinkling of Parmesan. And it was a…
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Bacon and chorizo macaroni cheese
We all need a little r & r now and again. Life has become relentlessly active these days – work hard play hard – with little time to slow down and breathe (unless you’re nursing a hangover). The Sunday ‘Doomsday’ dread has never been more tangible when we start the five-day countdown to ‘Fri-yay!’. Play…
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Prawn, tomato and garlic spaghetti
For once my focus hasn’t been on the food. It has remained in that area – general food and eating (what do you take me for) – but instead, it has been on how to serve it. You see, dear reader, I am without a dining table. This bothersome conundrum has meant a lot of…
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Spaghetti a la Clara
The kitchen is being painted. What started as a highly indulgent picnic adventure has now reached a tiresome level which is purely my aggravation that I can’t bake anything. Instead, I must satisfy myself with squidgy pieces of banana bread made on Sunday, cold pizza from the fridge, and try not to stare at pictures…