Chicken Soup for the Soul
You know when you have a time in your life when you just crave comfort food? For some it’s a bowl of soup, but for others it’s pasta. Sophia Loren once quipped as she gestured with a manicured hand across a bodacious bosom and hips that don’t lie: “Everything you see, I owe to spaghetti…”
Who hasn’t thanked the pasta gods when just in from the kid's hurling training, with the coat still on (I mean, who HASN’T done this?) and dinner needs to be made in 30 minutes before the kids and you lose their minds? Pasta. Everything, we owe everything to spaghetti or linguine in this case…
Standby Recipes to Cure What Ails Ye
That’s why it’s always nice to have a few standby recipes, well, they’re more assembly pieces, to bring together into a bowl of gorgeous goodness. This is the sort of dinner that doesn’t take up any more bandwidth in my already frazzled brain 🤯
I made a reel on my IG
My halloumi & tomato pasta is just what the doctor ordered. It’s short on time but big on flavour. I used to make it for the boys when they were little, blitzed to a purée when they were all gummy-goodness😍
The rest of the night they would burp out garlic, like Morse Code for foodies! What is it about food made simply that makes us feel so good? Is it the holy trinity of garlic, olive oil and tomatoes? It’s far from it we were reared; don’t worry the spud will make a glorious appearance here too! Maybe it’s just the knowledge that a few simple steps, a kind of culinary alchemy in the kitchen, can make something comforting even when times around us are so disconcerting? There’s something to that, isn’t there?
Anyways here’s the recipe, keep in mind these quantities serve my three large lads who’ve worn out the hinges of the fridge.
Feel free to halve it and let me know how you get on XO
The Fabulous Pharmacist Halloumi And Tomato One Pan Pasta
Preheat oven to 220C; use a good size roasting tin.
Ingredients:
- 4 packages of halloumi- drained and roughly cut into cubes
- 5 cloves of garlic, roughly chopped
- 8- 10 tomatoes, quartered
- Dried herbs - I had basil and sage
- 1 package of dried linguine (I love deCecco )
Method:
- Add chopped tomatoes, halloumi, garlic, & dried herbs to tin.
- Drizzle over couple of tablespoons of olive oil. I don’t measure.
- Mix and season with salt and pepper.
- Place tin in preheated oven.
- After 15 minutes take out of oven to stir and further combine ingredients.
- There should be a lovely sauce pooling at the bottom… I mean, a trip to Italy by cooking!
- Return the tin to oven.
- Boil a kettle. You’ll probably need two kettles.
- Fill a large pot of water on the hob & bring to boil.
- Add salt- I add two tablespoons. As salty as the sea.
- Add your linguine.
- Cook to time on package.
- Take out tin from oven just as pasta is ready.
- Drag pasta out of water into bubbling tray of golden halloumi, tomatoes and garlic oil.
- Mix with tongs.
- Bring immediately to table.
Applause!
(As if!)
