Tagliatelle with artichokes and peas

For a couple of years now, I’ve been in the habit of taking my lunch into work with me every day. Usually, it’s a fresh salad of some description. But, now I’m making a more determined effort to clear my cupboards, I’m simply making larger quantities of my evening meal, eating the leftovers the next day.

We don’t have a microwave in our office, so the food I take in has to either be eaten raw or taste okay cold. And not all leftovers are very nice cold, so coming up with dishes that work the next day is an added challenge to my culinary skills.

However, tonight’s supper worked in every respect – as a tasty hot meal and as a cold extra to my lunchtime salad tomorrow.

Artichokes are one of my all-time favourite vegetables, but they can be a bit of a hassle to cook fresh if you don’t have a lot of time, not to mention quite pricey. The tinned ones can taste a little briny, but with the right flavour additions, they’re just as delicious as the fresh ones.

So, for a really quick pasta sauce, fry some onion and garlic until soft. Add a drained and rinsed tin of artichokes, some frozen peas, fresh parsley, mint, salt and pepper and a squeeze of lemon juice, and simmer for just a few minutes until the peas are cooked through. I made the sauce quite dry, so it wouldn’t waterlog my salad the next day, but if you’re just making it to go with pasta, then I’d suggest adding a little water.

So, another day, and another recipe to lower my store-cupboard and freezer stocks…

Tagliatelle with lemony leeks and courgettes

‘Scuse the delay in posting anything new since the weekend, but I was rather cooked out after the dinner party on Saturday night. (Now I definitely know I’m too old to be a professional cook, if I’m exhausted after one night of full-on cooking!)

Anyway, I managed to rustle up something vaguely interesting tonight, in the shape of tagliatelle with some leeks and courgettes, doused in plenty of lemon, garlic and parsley.

In a large non-stick frying pan, I fried slices of courgette in a little olive oil, until nicely browned on each side. Then I removed them to a plate, added the sliced leek to the same frying pan, and a couple of sliced cloves of garlic.

Once the leeks were soft, I put the courgettes back in the pan, added a good squeeze of lemon, some chopped fresh parsley and seasoned with salt and pepper.

The weather was noticeably warmer in London today, and my supper tonight really brought some spring flavours to mind. I just hope I’m not being a bit premature with thoughts of spring…