Occasional Pasta Sauce

So, it appears from today’s news that Mars Food who make a variety of household favourites, such as  Dolmio and Uncle Bens, have declared some of their products to be only for ‘occasional’ use. Whoops. Big news for quick-fix pasta lovers as Dolmio's lasagna, pesto and carbonara sauces are all on the warning list- along with Uncle Ben's popular oriental sauces.

The pasta sauce I’m sure is a staple store cupboard essential used on a regular basis as a hasty and easy dinner on top of spaghetti.

A poignant moment to whizz up your own low or no sugar version in a huge batch and store portions in the freezer for practicalities. Try it. It really is so simple and can certainly be eaten more than occasionally!

This is my favourite recipe rich in anti-oxidants, especially lycopene (in the sun-dried tomatoes) which has been well researched in the prevention of some cancers.

70 g pine nuts

2 roasted red peppers

4 sundried tomatoes

1 tablespoon lemon juice

Pinch of garlic powder

How to:

Whizz up all the ingredients, blend further by adding enough olive oil to create the perfect consistency, or for a looser, lower fat sauce use the juice from a can of tomatoes, adding to the mix until as smooth as you need.

Delicious on pasta, as a pizza topping or on courgetti.

A Quick Vegetarian Mushroom and Chestnut Pate

Scanning the larder for bits to use up, I came across Merchant Gourmet Whole Chestnuts ‘cooked, peeled and ready to use.’

I happened to have some closed cup mushrooms to hand so whizzed up this very tasty veggie pate.

How to:

Saute 3 plump cloves of garlic in olive oil, add 6-8 sliced medium sized closed cup mushrooms, the tiniest pinch of sea-salt and a grind of pepper. I also threw in a twiglet of thyme (the plant is just starting to produce some fresh Spring sprigs).

Whizz this up in the mini-chopper with the whole 200g pack of chestnuts (less the few you may pop into your mouth whilst the mushrooms are cooking – my Mindful Eating cleanse is approaching!)

Snip in a few leaves of Italian parsley and a tablespoon of olive oil. So good served on toast or made into a wrap for tiny vegetarian lunch boxes.