I have recently picked up on the 5.30pm Channel 4 show in Durham – ‘Jamie Oliver’s 30-minute meals‘ and am hereby mimicking some of his cooking ethos:
- Always praise your cooking techniques and recipes.
- Use cheater techniques to hasten the cooking process.
- Squeeze lemon juice and drip olive oil into (virtually all) dishes to signal the end of cooking.
So here I have it – my very own 20 minutes meal, using a cheater technique (microwave), to produce the best microwaved pasta ever!
Ingredients:
- Pasta: 200g
- Olive oil: 1 tbsp
- Salt: a pinch
- Boiling water: 500ml
- Tomato pasta sauce: 200g
- Mixed peas: a handful, defrosted
- Shredded mozzarella cheese: a handful
- Cheddar cheese: 1 slice, torn into smaller bits
- Sugar: 1 tbsp
- Bacon slice: 1, sliced into strips
- Ground black pepper: to taste
- Mixed herbs: 1 tsp
Method:
- Add pasta, olive oil and salt to boiling water. Microwave on high heat for 15min.
- Drain water from pasta.
- Add the rest of the ingredients, mix and microwave on high heat for 3min.
- Give the mixture a stir and microwave on high heat again for 2min.
- Stir the mixture again and serve hot.
Tricks:
- Boil the water first so that the pasta will cook faster in the microwave.
- The mozzarella melts easily once it’s hot, creating cheesy trails when the pasta is scooped.
- The sugar was added to sweeten the sauce. Typical tomato sauces tend to taste bland and a little too sour.
- Other pasta sauces will work as well. Don’t add sugar if it’s cream-based though.
Serving:
1 – 2 persons