Chilli prawn tagliatelle

I don't know whether tagliatelle is recently experiencing a huge increase in popularity in Australia, or if I've just had my head in the sand for the last twenty years; suddenly, tagliatelle leaps out at me from every restaurant menu and foodie mag.
Tagliatelle is similar to fettucine, but even wider, and according to Wikipedia, is pronounced taʎʎaˈtɛlle (which I interpret as tal-ya-TELL-a).
Anyway, keen to try out this fettucine-on-'roids in my own kitchen, I scooped up a packet from the supermarket, and I'm happy to report it's as easy to cook as any other packet pasta. I'd like to challenge myself by making the tagliatelle from scratch, but I don't have a pasta maker... yet!
I've teamed the tagliatelle with one of my favourite flavour combos: chilli prawn. And I've thrown in a good dose of cherry tomatoes  to assuage my guilty conscience (I wish I could tell you that the basil counts as a green vegetable). Enjoy.

Ingredients
400 g pack of tagliatelle
50 ml olive oil
4 cloves garlic, finely chopped
4 red chillies, finely chopped
600 g prawns, raw with tail on
350 g cherry tomatoes, halved

⅓ cup basil leaves, chopped

Method

1. Cook tagliatelle according to packet instructions, then drain (not quite completely - leave a little bit of water in the pan to help later). Leave tagliatelle in its saucepan to rest while you prepare the rest of the meal.
2. Heat olive oil in a frying pan over medium heat. Add garlic and chilli, toss for 1 minute.
3. Add cherry tomatoes, cook 2–3 minutes, then add prawns. Cook, turning occasionally, until prawns are pink on both sides.
4. Add basil and toss for a few moments, then tip everything from the frying pan into the saucepan containing the tagliatelle. Toss together and serve immediately.

Serves 4.

Tips

• Have all your ingredients out on your kitchen bench, chopped and ready to go, before you start preparing this meal. You don't want the pasta to grow cold while you fiddle around with the rest of the ingredients. Steps 2–4 should only take about 5 minutes.
• If desired, you could serve this meal with a bit of parmesan cheese grated over the top. Personally, I prefer a bit of cracked pepper, but it depends on how hot your chillies are.

Minestrone with damper

Here’s a deliciously hearty combination to keep you warm this winter! It’s simple, and doesn’t take long to prepare – the most time-consuming part is chopping the veggies. And the damper can be fully prepared while the soup is simmering on the stove.

The great thing about minestrone is that you can make it up as you go along. If you don’t have the exact ingredients I’ve listed below, simply substitute them with whatever you have in your fridge or pantry. Capsicum, zucchini and kidney beans are some examples that also work well in minestrone.

It’s nicest eaten the same day because if left overnight, the pasta will eventually soak up most of the moisture, and it won’t be soupy anymore (it'll still taste great, though).

 
Minestrone

Ingredients

2 Tbs oil
2 brown onions, diced
3 garlic cloves, crushed
6 rashers of bacon, chopped
Half a bunch of celery, chopped
2 carrots, diced
1 cup green beans, chopped
2 x 400 g tins of chopped or crushed tomatoes
2 medium tomatoes, roughly chopped
1 x 400 g tin cannellini beans, drained
4 cups vegetable or beef stock
3 cups boiling water
2–3 cups spiral pasta

Method

1. Heat oil in a saucepan, then stir in onion, garlic and bacon and brown for a couple of minutes.
2. Add the remainder of the ingredients, bring to boil,  then reduce heat and simmer, covered, for 30 minutes.
   
   

   Serves 8–10

Parmesan damper

Ingredients

4 cups self-raising flour
2 cups parmesan cheese, finely grated
1–2 bunches of chives, roughly snipped
1 cup oil
1 cup milk

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180°C and line baking tray with baking paper.
2. Mix flour, cheese and chives in a large bowl, then add oil and milk, stirring to form a loose dough.
3. Turn out half the mixture onto a lightly-floured board, kneading lightly to coat with flour. Roll into a short, fat, sausage-shaped loaf and place on prepared tray. Repeat step with the remainder of the mixture to form a second loaf, and place on the tray also
4. Bake 20–25 minutes, then cool on a wire rack. Serve warm or cold, with butter.
   
   Serves 8–10

Tandoori salmon on basmati rice with watermelon and fetta salad

 

This is a beautiful meal – colourful to the eyes, tastebuds and the nose. The tandoori flavour is offset wonderfully by the refreshing coolness of the watermelon salad, and the mingled aromas of the tandoori and the coriander-infused basmati rice are mouth-watering. Best of all, this is a stress-free meal to put together when you’re having guests to dinner. It doesn’t take long to prepare, and most of the legwork can be done ahead of time, leaving you free to socialise when company arrives. I coat the salmon in the tandoori mixture and prepare the salad beforehand and keep them in the fridge, so all I need to do once the guests arrive is put the salmon straight into the oven, toss the salad and prepare the rice (which only takes 90 seconds in the microwave).

Tandoori salmon

Ingredients

4 fresh salmon fillets

300 g Greek yoghurt

6 Tbs tandoori paste

Method

1. Preheat oven to 220°C and line a roasting pan with baking paper
2. Skin salmon fillets (see instructions and photos at the bottom of this post)
3. Combine yoghurt and tandoori paste in a bowl, then generously cover both side of the salmon fillets with the mixture
4. Lay salmon fillets in the roasting pan and place in oven for 15-20 minutes (until cooked to your liking)

Basmati rice

Ingredients

1 family size pack (450 g ) Sun Rice microwaveable basmati rice

3 Tbs snipped coriander

1½ Tbs lemon juice

  

Method

1. Microwave basmati rice according to directions 
2. Toss quickly with coriander and lemon juice. Serve while hot.

Watermelon and fetta salad

Ingredients

1 red onion, diced

2 Tbs chopped mint

2 cucumbers, seeded and thinly sliced

½ large watermelon, cut into large cubes

200 g fetta, cubed or crumbled

1 Tbs lemon juice

Method

1. Combine ingredients in a bowl, top with the lemon juice and toss together.

Tips

• If you’ve got plenty of time on your hands, you can make the basmati rice from scratch on your stovetop, but I prefer to use the microwaveable variety because I serve this meal when I’m time-poor or simply don’t want to have to worry. You can place a few saffron threads in the saucepan with the rice to give it a beautiful yellow hue.
• The salmon could instead be cooked in less than 10 minutes in a pan on the stovetop, but because the salmon fillets I buy are so thick, I find the oven is the best option, because the salmon can cook all the way through.
• How to skin salmon fillets: with a large butcher’s knife, make a deep incision into the thick end of the fillet (nearly to the skin), then turn the knife until it’s at less than a 45° angle with your bench top, and carefully saw along the length of the fillet, using the meat you cut at the thick end of the fillet as a handle. Discard skin. 

make a deep incision near the thick end of the fillet

carefully saw along the length of the fillet