Tag: nutmeg
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PK’s Easy Mac And Cheese With Bacon
This easy Macaroni and Cheese recipe tastes so much better than the store bought dried version. It is great comfort food and I love making it.
I bet you have all the ingredients in your house already so let’s get started. 🙂
Dietary notes: The bacon is totally optional and you can easily adapt the recipe to use gluten and dairy free ingredients. You can also throw in vegetables like corn and peas if you are trying to get them into your little fussy eaters.
You will be:
- Cooking the bacon
- Boiling the pasta
- Making the white cheese sauce
- Mixing eveything
- Serving
You will need:
- Ingredients (feeds 2 adults and 2 kids):
- 3 cups freshly made pasta (any type of short/elbow pasta)
- 6 rashers bacon (I used short-cut bacon), cut into small squares
- 80g cheese (I used a mild cheddar), grated
- 2 cups milk
- 1 Tbsp butter
- 1 Tbsp plain white flour
- A sprinkle of ground nutmeg
- Ground black pepper to taste, optional
- Chopped parsley and chives to taste, optional
- Equipment:
- Long sharp knife
- Chopping board
- Frypan for the bacon
- Saucepan for the pasta
- Small saucepan for the white sauce
- Colander to drain the pasta
Cooking the bacon
Start cooking the 6 rashers worth of bacon in a frypan. This part will take a while so we will be boiling the pasta and making the cheese sauce during it. Just remember to keep an eye on it so you get evenly cooked bacon and not charcoal. 🙂
Boiling the pasta
- Bring enough water to cook 3 cups of elbow pasta to the boil.
- Add a bit of salt and some olive oil.
- Cook the pasta al dente and then drain.
Making the white cheese sauce
- On low heat, melt the 1 Tbsp of butter in a saucepan.
- Slowly stir in the 1 Tbsp plain white flour.
- Add a pinch of ground nutmeg (this is the dish’s secret weapon).
- Slowly stir in the 2 cups of milk.
- Add any herbs and vegetables at this stage.
- Stir in the 80g grated cheese and now cooked bacon.
Mixing everything
I bring the cheese sauce to the pasta rather than the other way round. I do this so I can control the amount of sauce in the final dish. I then gently fold the sauce through the pasta.
Serving
Serve hot with some freshly cracked black peppercorns. I also like a bit of fresh crusty bread smothered in butter. 🙂
It makes for great leftovers the next day and also freezes well.
Enjoy,
PK
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Spaghetti Carbonara With Cream
This rich creamy spaghetti carbonara will not win any health awards but jeapers it is tasty. 🙂
It also isn’t particularly authentic due to the addition of cream. I love the more traditional egg only version too (Spaghetti Carbonara) but this one is my go to comfort food pasta dish.
I make it in large batches as it freezes really well. Remember to use a low power setting on the microwave though when reheating.
You will be:
- Preparing everything
- Cooking the pasta
- Cooking the bacon and garlic
- Bringing it all together
- Serving
You will need:
- Ingredients:
- 6 to 9 rashers shortcut bacon
- 500g dried pasta
- 100g Parmigiano-Reggiano
- 200ml double cream (called heavy cream in other countries)
- 2 eggs
- 2 garlic cloves
- freshly cracked black pepper to taste
- a sprinkle or two of ground nutmeg
- a handful of fresh basil leaves
- half a handful of fresh oregano leaves
- a generous slug of olive oil
- table salt for the pasta water to taste
- Equipment:
- a long sharp knife
- a chopping board
- a whisk or fork for the eggs
- a fry pan
- a large pan to cook the pasta
Preparing everything
- Chop the 6 to 9 rashers of bacon (shortcut bacon is pretty lean but if you are using other types try remove most of the fat and rind if you like).
- Finely grate the 100g of parmigiano-reggiano (you can use parmesan but I recommend you try the real deal).
- Roughly chop the handfuls of basil and oregano leaves.
- Peel and finely dice the 2 garlic cloves.
- Whisk the 2 eggs.
- Fold the whisked eggs into the 200ml of double cream.
Cooking the pasta
- Put a large pot of water on the boil.
- Add a slug of olive oil and a good dash of salt to the water.
- Cook the pasta al dente while you do the next part.
Cooking the bacon and garlic
Throw a slug of olive oil into a fry pan along with the 2 sliced garlic cloves and cook the 6 rashers of chopped bacon.
Bringing it all together
- Drain the pasta but keep some of the water to adjust the amount of liquid in the finished dish.
- Add the pasta to the fry pan and on very low heat gently mix everything.
- Fold in the egg/cream mix, cheese, oregano, basil and some of the reserved pasta water until you get the consistency you like.
Serving
Serve directly with a large crusty garlic bread in the center of the table. It is great to watch your family and friends literally breaking bread with you.
Have cracked black pepper and extra cheese available of course. 🙂
A wine site I like, winefolly.com, suggests full bodied white wines or light bodied reds.
Enjoy,
PK
Here are some more Italian food and pasta recipe posts:
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PK’s Fettuccine Chicken Alfredo
Fettuccine Alfredo is a pasta dish made from freshly made fettuccine tossed only with Parmigiano-Reggiano and butter.
This was my first attempt at making it and I wanted to make the sauce from scratch. I chose this ‘food network’ recipe as a base to experiment from and the results were simply amazing. The addition of 2 cups of heavy cream might have had something to do with this :).
I used an Australian made Parmesan rather than certified Parmigiano-Reggiano which is only made in one of several regions in northern France. I certainly will be using it next time for a comparison. [ edit – I did 🙂 ]
Similarly, although I used San Remo Brand’s Traditional Egg Fettuccine No 77 and thought it an excellent product, I am going to be making my own fettuccine next time. [ edit – I did 🙂 ]
You will be:
- Boiling the pasta.
- Cooking the bacon and chicken.
- Making the alfredo sauce.
- Combining everything and serving hot.
You will need:
- Ingredients:
- a couple slugs of olive oil
- 225g fettuccine
- 2 chicken breasts, skin off, cut into thin but wide slices (see photos below)
- a handful of bacon rashers, finely chopped
- 8 Tbsp butter
- 2 cups heavy cream
- ground rock salt and ground black peppercorns to taste
- ground nutmeg to taste
- a very small handful of oregano, chopped
- 1.5 cups Parmigiano-Reggiano or Parmesan, finely grated
- Equipment:
- a chopping board
- a long sharp knife
- a large saucepan for the pasta
- a frypan
- a bowl to put the cooked chicken and bacon in
- a colander to drain the pasta
Boiling the pasta
- You are going to need 15 minutes to get everything else ready so put the pasta into boiling water with a slug of olive oil and a generous amount of salt.
- Whilst doing the recipe’s other steps, cook the pasta until molto al dente (I chuck the odd bit onto the kitchen tiles to test it, if it sticks it is ready) and remember that the last step in this recipe is to mix everything together and serve quickly.
Cooking the bacon and chicken
- Cook a good handful of chopped bacon in some olive oil until crispy, putting it aside and cleaning the frypan with paper towel. Return it to the heat.
- Melt 2 Tbsp of the butter in the frypan and cook the 2 chicken breasts worth of slices over medium heat. Remember that the slices won’t take long each side to cook through and the chicken will go chewy if you over cook it.
- Add the bacon back to the frypan and give everything a gentle toss.
- Put the chicken and bacon aside in a bowl and wipe clean the bottom of the frypan.
Bacon goodness:
Cook the chicken and combine the with the bacon:
Making the alfredo sauce
- Bring the frypan back to the heat and melt 6 Tbsp of butter.
- Whisk the 2 cups of heavy cream into the butter.
- Add the very small handful of chopped oregano, salt, pepper and at least one pinch of ground nutmeg.
- Keep stirring gently for several minutes and then fold the 1.5 cups of finely grated Parmigiano-Reggiano or Parmesan into the sauce.
Combining everything and serving hot
- Chuck the drained pasta, the chicken and the bacon into the sauce and gently mix everything together.
- Add large portions to the serving bowls and serve with cracked black peppercorns and grated Parmigiano-Reggiano.
Enjoy,
PK
YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE
PASTA DISHES
MORE ITALIAN CUISINE
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Rick Stein’s Garam Masala
I use Rick Stein’s garam masala in so many dishes it isn’t funny. This uniquely south asian spice blend is earthy in taste and aroma. The blend is so verstile though and enhances the dishes of many cuisines.
Sure, you could buy a garam masala from the shops. MasterFoods makes a really good one that I grew up with but making your own means that the spices haven’t lost their aroma and you get to personalise the blend.
Rick Stein says “Even more important than the mix is having them freshly roasted and then ground” and of course, he’s right. It is a bit of extra effort but a pleasurable experience. The resulting spice mix lasts for months in an airtight container.
Steps:
You will need:
Roast the whole spices
Pop all the spices (except the nutmeg) in a hot pan and keep them moving the whole time. Safe to say that if the smoke alarm goes off, you have dry roasted them too long or too high :).
Experiment a bit, with the goal being more the release of the spices’ aromas in my opinion, rather than a change in their appearance.
Mill the spices
Once cooled, transfer everything to your blender or mortar. Grate the nutmeg (or like me use shop bought ground nutmeg, oops) separately and to the mill. Run the mill in quick bursts until you get the consistency you like. Then store in an airtight container.
For more Rick Stein recipes click here.
Enjoy,
PK
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