Recipes

Some friends have noticed that I am not good at cooking for one. So here are some that were recently sent in.

The easiest low-carb recipe is crustless quiche – I throw a carton of egg whites, cheese, and veggies into a pyrex and bake until brown on top. If you eat meat you can add it in too. There are so many variations to this that it never gets old.
Baking them in cupcake pans works too and makes packing lunch pretty simple. from http://blushandbarbells.wordpress.com

Penne con zucchini alla Richard

For one person

What you need:
a pan big enough for pasta; another pan, ideally smaller, with a lid

pasta: penne or some other short pasta is good, any pasta will do
olive oil, garlic, one courgette (or half of one), tomato puree, salt & pepper

the unusual thing about this is that you cook the courgette *very* quickly: this means that the whole thing is done in the time it takes for the pasta to cook.

1) put the water on for the pasta, and if cooking with electric, heat another hob.
2) chop some garlic (one or two cloves) and cut about half of a medium sized courgette into rounds aabout as thick as a pound coin or a bit thicker. Lucia introduced the innovation of cutting the rounds into halves (i.e., half-moon shapes), which I have followed…
3) cooking the courgette takes only a very short time, so do it when the pasta is already on, as follows:
put oil in the small pan and when it is hot put in the garlic, and allow to sizzle for a bit without turning brown;
put in the courgette, salt and pepper, cover with the lid, and when it is sizzling again shake the pan with the lid on, and cook for no more than about 30 secs;
put in tomato puree, equivalent of about 1 tbsp, and then put the lid on again and shake the pan again and cook for about 30 secs again.
At this point the courgette should be cooked but still with a bit of crunch, and all that remains is to combine the courgette mixture with the cooked pasta, and eat with grated parmesan.

and another from the same source:

salsa piccante

you need:
garlic
dried chillies
small onion, or half of a big one
tin of tomatoes

chop garlic (one or two cloves) and onion (fairly small)
heat oil in a pan and put in the garlic and dried chillies: if the chillies are whole, crumble them small in your fingers (and then wash your hands before touching your eyes or any other sensitive part of the body!). I’d put quite a bit of dried chilli, but I like hot things… Matter of taste: phps start with only one if they are small or half if big, then work up (different brands differ in heat anyway; it’s better to buy from an Indian shop, where they will be both hotter and much cheaper)…
The garlic will sizzle and start to colour and the chilli will darken a bit: as soon as this happens, put in the onion, stir, add salt pepper. Cook on a low heat until the onion is soft (10-15 mins?).
Add the tinned tomatoes (chop them first unless they are already chopped). Wash the tomato tin with about half a tinful of water, then add that to the sauce. Let it cook on a low heat, but simmering (? 15/20 mins).

For a non-spicy tomato sauce, you could omit the chilli. You could flavour with herbs e.g. basil. If the herbs are fresh, add with the tomato or even later, but if dry add a little after the onion.

This is enough for two or three pasta meals for one, and could be frozen.

Good way of using this sauce: cook some short pasta and the sauce, and cut half a ball of mozzarella into bits (this is for one person). Drain the cooked pasta, put it back into its pan with a little oil, add enough sauce, scatter the mozzarella pieces, stir a little bit until the cheese starts to melt (phps over heat), serve.

Pasta with this sauce and some parmesan is good too.