Sausage and fennel carbonara

This dinner is a revelation. It came about after a busy day and raiding the kitchen for ideas. I normally plan every meal I am going to have in a week and then do the shop but this week got a bit out of sync.

I had a couple of leftover GF sausages, a third of a fennel bulb and as usual my cupboards contained pasta, eggs and garlic, there was even some parmesan in the fridge, so the dish made itself

I simply put some GF pasta on to cook, removed the two sausages from their skins and broke up the sausage meat into a pan and cooked until brown, continuing to break up the sausage meat as it cooked. I added some chopped fennel and garlic to the pan with the sausages and continued to sauté for a few minutes longer.

When the pasta had finished cooking I drained off most of the water and added in the sausage fennel mix. I also threw in a few frozen peas at this point as I felt the dish could do with more vegetables. I put the pan back onto a low heat, stirred in a couple of eggs, seasoning and a handful of grated parmesan.

This is a really flavoursome diner that I would actively chose to make again, its amazing what you can come up with after rooting through the freezer/fridge cupboards.

I try not to waste food but I suspect many of us could make a number of meals from what we already have stashed at home instead of buying new ingredients. Its worth thinking about when carrying out your next shop.

Spaghetti with sardines, tomatoes and olives

Take a look at the ingredients below.

How many do you already have in your cupboards/fridge? Even if you had none of them, (really?) to buy them all is still cheap. 

Oily fish are so incredibly good for us and it is recommended that we have one portion a week. If you are uncertain about sardines, mackerel etc. Then trying them in a pasta dish is a good way to introduce them to your diet. Need more convincing? These two tins of sardines in water cost 80p. Not each, together.

These ingredients come together to make a truly delicious dinner in little more than 15 minutes. It may not be much to look at, seriously trying to get a decent enough photo and eat my dinner while it was still hot was a challenge, but I promise the taste is excellent.

Quick, cheap, tasty and good for you, what are you waiting for?

Spaghetti with sardines, tomatoes and olives

serves 2

150-200g Gluten free spaghetti
2 tomatoes
12-15 pitted green olives
2 tins of sardines in water
1/2 lemon
pinch of sea salt
pinch of chilli flakes (optional, if you can't tolerate any spice leave them out)
oregano, fresh or dried (optional, if you have it great, if you don't and will not use any in another recipe do not buy it specially)

Bring water to a boil in a saucepan large enough to hold your pasta. Cook pasta according to packet instructions. 

While the pasta is cooking chop the tomato and olive into small diced pieces. 

When the pasta is done drain most of the water leaving a couple of tablespoons worth in the pan. Place back over a very low heat. Add the tomatoes and olives and flake in the sardines. The bones are edible, they kind of crumble and break up over heat, if you prefer you can remove the large spinal bone. I tend to do this. Squeeze in the lemon juice, add the salt and chilli if you are using. Give everything a good mix to make sure everything is evenly distributed, sprinkle over the oregano if using and serve immediately.