Bechamel/cheese sauce

This one is always in demand when I say pasta. All my friends, especially the little boys, get this glint in their eyes and OOF has burnt his fingers many times trying to taste it too early.

This is a combination of a bechamel, and some sort of cheese sauce we used to eat with macaroni as kiddies. It usually serves 4, and is lovely in lasagna or with mushrooms. It also is the base for the veggie pasta sauce I make, with spinach ground into the sauce to turn it green.

MinCat's favourite pasta sauce

Somewhere in my time in the US, I realised that tomato sauce is REALLY easy to make - it just takes time. I usually make a huge batch that lasts for about four meals of two people each. It freezes very well, and lasts in the fridge up to a week (I've never been able to resist it longer.)

The basis is tomatoes and onions, with a ton of garlic. After that, toss in whatever you want. Obviously, the more veggies you put in, the more texture it will have; but that's not a bad thing, especially for vegetarian pasta. For pizza I recommend slicing things thinly or sticking to leaves and minced peppers, because that way it doesn't mound up on the pizza, ans leaves you free to add other toppings.

Veggie Cheese Pasta

Random recipe I keep making up as I go along, but figure I should write it down.

• Pasta
• 2 bundles of spinach, shredded
• 10-15 cloves of garlic, depending on how you like it, crushed
• 100 g cheese of choice (you can tone it down or up), grated
• 1 tsp basil
• 1/2 tsp oregano
• 1 bag mushrooms, sliced
• 2 small peppers (I like red and yellow), diced
• 1 medium onion, diced
• 300-500 ml milk, depending on how you want the sauce
• 2 tbs butter
• 4 tbs flour, pref wholewheat
• salt to taste

Boil pasta according to directions.

Fry onions and garlic in olive oil till onions are translucent. Add spinach, basil, oregano and salt. Cover and cook till the liquid dries up. Set aside to cool. Cook peppers and mushrooms till liquid dries up, if you like put some garlic in too! Salt to taste. When the spinach mixture has dried, puree it.

White sauce: Melt butter in a pan and cook flour in it until it smells like it's cooked - a bit like pie crust. Slowly stir milk in till lumps disappear. Add salt to taste. As it comes to a boil, stirring occasionally, add grated cheeses. Once it boils, turn off

Add spinach puree. Stir in veggies and pasta. Serve!

Strange Primavera Pasta

In delight at the success of this blog so far [snh snh] I've been cooking up a storm. This is the result of a pasta craving and a zucchini in the fridge. I'd say use what you have in the fridge, but I reccomend atleast some peppers, green beans and zucchini.

Serves: 2 and a bit
Cooking time: 30 min

6 cloves garlic
1 medium onion, chopped fine
1 medium red bell pepper*
1/2 cup green french beans *
1 medium zucchini*
4 tbs tomato sauce [not ketchup]
1 tbs dried basil
1/2 tsp dried oregano
4 tbs milk [cream actually but I shudder at the thought]
1/2 cup white wine [optional]
1/4 grated edam cheese [substitute as you wish, it's what I had in the fridge]
2 tsp oil
salt to taste
as much cooked pasta as you like

Heat the oil in a heavy bottomed pot, I'm told the one I used is called a Peking Wok. Add garlic and toss. Add onions and when they are transluscent, add remaining vegetables. Add spices and stir fry for about 5 min. Add tomato paste and wine. Stir for 5 min, add milk. It might split. Don't worry. Add salt and allow it to cook for 10 min or till vegetbles are done. Turn off the heat and add drained pasta. stir in the cheese while still hot and serve.


*Try and cut the veggies to match the pasta, I used fettucini so they were [fancy cooking word alert] julienned.