Recipe: Fridge Raid Creamy Pasta

Recipe: Fridge Raid Creamy Pasta

So if this crisis has made me do anything (other than worry), it's think about food waste very hard. I've been meaning to do it for ages, but, we all know how it is, good intentions, but never the time. I started easy.

I had milk that was about to go out of date and since it's Cravendale, that usually means it's right at the end of its life because that stuff has expiry dates way longer than normal milk. So I made my own cottage cheese, which is really easy to turn into homemade ricotta with a stick blender and a little extra milk. Then I wondered what to do with my triumph and came up with pasta. All ingredients were just in the fridge or store cupboard, nothing was bought specially, hence the name of the recipe.

If you don't fancy making your own cheese because you don't have any spare milk, actual ricotta or cream cheese would work just as well. As I mentioned this is about raiding the fridge.

Serves 2 (for more just scale up)

Ingredients

For the cheese

• 1l / 4 1/4 cups/ 34 fl oz milk (mine was semi-skimmed)
• juice of 1 lemon or white vinegar (2-3 tbsp)
• 1/2 tsp salt

For the sauce

• home-made cottage cheese
• 1 tsp crushed garlic
• Italian herb mix to taste
• 1 slice/ 18g smoked cheese (or any cheese you happen to have, just something with a bit of flavour - blue would probably work well too)
• a little oil
• 2-3 tbsp milk
• ham cut into small chunks (other options include chicken, tofu, quorn, veggies etc - whatever may be lurking in the fridge)

Enough pasta for 2 people ~150g

Instructions

To make the cheese

1. Put the milk in a heavy base saucepan and bring to a light boil.
2. Take off the heat and add in the lemon and the salt - stir well and set aside.
3. Wait for 10-20 mins for the curds and whey to separate.
4. Strain off the whey from the curds using a sieve. (We can use the whey for other things, so if we can, we should keep it).
5. Congrats, you've made cottage cheese - it will keep in an airtight container in the fridge for days.

To make the sauce

1. Using a stick blender, or a normal blender, blend the cottage cheese with a small amount of the reserved whey, or a little milk until smooth and creamy.
2. Cook the pasta as instructed on the packet, drain and leave to sit in cold water.
3. Put a kettle on to heat water.
4. Put a little oil in the bottom of a small saucepan and heat gently.
5. Add the garlic and fry for about a min until fragrant.
6. Add the smoked cheese (or chosen cheese) and stir until it begins to melt.
7. Add the homemade cream cheese to the saucepan with a couple of table spoons of milk and combine.
8. Grind in the Italian herb mix, add the ham (or sauce carrier of choice) and stir.
9. If the sauce is too thick, add a little more milk and heat gently until warmed all the way through.
10. Refresh the pasta with the hot water from the kettle and drain again.
11. Pour the sauce over the pasta, mix and serve in bowls with a grinding of pepper (optional).

This was absolutely yummy and finished up my left over milk and the ham that was going out of date tomorrow, so win/win.

Hope you are well and keeping safe. Love and hugs to all.