#10: Pasta with roast asparagus, prosciutto and pesto

Things are a little busy in the 52 dishes household at the moment. I've been pulling a few long hours here and there, and as a result dinners have been a bit simpler and easier, aimed at getting me and my husband fed rather than something I linger over. Don't get me wrong, I'm nothing silly like an investment banker or a newborn mother, and I've still been able to make time most days for my daily dog-walk-on-the-beach, but things have been a just a little bit more hectic than I'd like.

This is just a slightly fancier version of pesto and pasta - which, let's be honest, is a student dish - making it perfect for a busy weekday night. We get fresh pasta and pesto from a local Italian grocery shop which also has the best deals on seasonal fruit and vegetables, so we typically throw in whatever is going cheap. However, this was my first time cooking asparagus: I've historically been a bit afraid of it, as I've had some tough and rubbery asparagus before and therefore assumed there was a bit of magic to getting it right. This recipe worked really well though, relying on some oil and white wine to keep it nice and tender (you could substitute lemon juice if your white wine is precious, which it probably should be).

Serves 2. 40 minutes preparation & cooking time.

 

400g pasta

1 onion

8-10 stems of asparagus
Half a cup of white wine

4 slices of proscuitto
4 tablespoons of basil pesto

Flaked parmesan to serve

1. Slice the onion and put in the oven (180-200C) in a small and shallow roasting dish doused in olive oil. Give the onions around 10 minutes to soften before adding the asparagus.
2. Chop the asparagus into 'bite size' chunks and add to the onion dish and pour on a large splash of white wine. Add black pepper and put back in the oven for around 15 minutes.
3. Bring a pan of water with salt and oil to the boil. Add the pasta and simmer for 20 minutes (or according to the cooking requirements of your choice of pasta).
4. Drain the pasta and stir in the pesto and sliced proscuitto.
5. Add the onion and asparagus and serve with flaked parmesan and black pepper.

This goes fantastic with Riesling. We drank Taylors Estate Riesling which is really crisp and citrusy - a great complement to the asparagus.

#5: Baked beans on, well, anything.

And just like that January was over. Seriously, I feel like this year might fly by rather quickly. I've been particularly busy with work this past month, which might account for why time has been moving so fast for me: that's the real meaning of Einstein's Theory of Relativity, or at least, that's how I choose to interpret it during particularly busy periods in my life.

As a result dinners have been slightly lazy. If you thought last week's salad was lazy, wait until you read this recipe! This is the quite probably the easiest recipe in the world, and most of the ingredients (and definitely all of the essential ones) can always be found in my cupboards. It’s lazy, and fast, and requires the minimum of forethought. Perfect.

I eat these beans on toast, on a jacket potato, as a side to pork or chicken, or – as I discovered this week – as the tastiest filling in a beef burger. The recipe below makes enough for 2 or 4, depending on what you’re serving it with. Any leftovers keep perfectly well in the fridge for a day or two, and the flavour only improves. If I’m making these as a side to a meat dish I’ll typically make the beans up at some stage early in the cooking process, and then just reheat them before serving up – it sounds lazy, but giving them some time to sit makes the sauce a tad thicker and fuller.

Pictured below is a fuller version of this recipe, but this week's dish was a true pantry-basic, and I just used what was in the house. I used half as many beans as normal, and the result was just a slightly sloppier mixture, but just as tasty.

Serves 4, or 2 with a decent amount of leftovers.

10-15 minutes cooking

1 tin tomatoes (chopped)

1 tin beans (mixed or bortolli work best for me)

1 pinch cayenne pepper

Plenty of pepper and paprika

Dash of Worcestershire sauce.

Put in a pan and cook on a medium-low heat for 10-15 minutes (until beans are all soft and the sauce is thickening). Serve.