Penne al Mascarpone

There is nothing much that cannot be improved by the addition of cheese, in this case mascarpone. I love its rich and creamy texture, and have unashamedly used a shed load in this recipe. It's well worth the calorific content, I assure you.

Ingredients

olive oil
1 red onion
1-2 chillies
1 clove of garlic (small)
1 tin plum tomatoes
1 tub mascarpone 250g
Parmesan
penne
basil

Serves 2 (generously)

                                      Soften the chopped onion in olive oil with some salt

                                         Add 1-2 chillies...

and one small clove of grated garlic

  

Next add 1 tin of plum tomatoes, then fill the empty can about 1/4 full with hot water and add to the sauce. Season. Bring to the boil then simmer for 10-15 mins on a low heat to reduce. Then taste and add a little sugar if the tomato flavour is too acidic.

 Once reduced, stir in the mascarpone and a small handful of grated Parmesan until combined. Blitz till smooth(ish) with a hand blender.  Mascarpone can be quite bland and it's really important to taste and adjust the seasoning at this point. 

 Add cooked penne to the sauce (when the pasta is still a little undercooked).

To serve: Grated Parmesan, black pepper, and some torn basil leaves.

Spaghetti alla Puttanesca

This southern Italian sauce (roughly translated as tart's pasta) is one of my favourites. First and foremost it's big on flavour, spicy and salty. It can also be made from ingredients I usually have hanging about. Perfect.

Ingredients

Spaghetti
1 red onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, sliced
3 anchovy fillets, chopped
2 small red chillies, chopped
1 400g can chopped tomatoes
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
2 tablespoons capers, chopped
2 tablespoons black olives (11)
parsley

Fry the chopped onion in olive oil with a little salt. After about 5 mins add sliced garlic and cook on a low heat for 3-5 minutes.

              Add chopped anchovies and chillies, cook for 3-5 minutes. 

Chopped tomatoes go in, with 1 tbsp red wine vinegar. Bring to boil then simmer.

 Reduce sauce a bit, then add olives and capers.  If necessary loosen the sauce with a bit of the cooking water from the pasta.  At this point I fish out the large slices of garlic (well the ones I can see).

Drain the pasta when it's still a bit undercooked, then stir into the sauce. The ingredients are quite salty so I don't usually need to add any extra.

No need for Parmesan on this one (unless you want to). Finish with black pepper and parsley (I ran out of parsley and really missed it). Buon appetito.