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There's been an outcry this week over cookbook author and queen of the kitchen Nigella Lawson's hack for a creamy and luscious pasta that costs around £1 ($2) per serve.
The pasta was shared by Lawson as part of a slew of recipes that have come out as the UK faces huge pressures on the cost of living and has also sparked interest in Australia as we go through similar rate rises and tough times.
But it was the key ingredient that had home cooks divided, because plenty of people aren't really sure how they feel about peanut butter in pasta.
Get ready to have your mind blown.
On Today Extra we talk through all the reasons that peanut butter is actually a great pasta
sauce ingredient and to share some other penny pinching recipes.
Find Jane's recipes and kitchen tricks here
Nigella's £1 peanut butter pasta
What's great about Nigella's peanut butter pasta is that it uses a pantry staple to really create a big, creamy flavour.
While plenty of people don't think peanut butter belongs in pasta, it's actually the base to many great satay sauces and it goes beautifully with garlic and chilli.
Stir it through pasta and you have a cheap, gorgeous meal.
The extra trick in Lawson's recipe is to also add some spinach and wilt it with the pasta water, thus saving washing up – so it's a win/win/win recipe.
Ingredients along the lines of:
● 1 packet of pasta
● small bag of baby spinach, roughly chopped
● big dollop of smooth peanut butter
● 1 tsp crushed garlic
● pinch of dried thyme
● pinch of chilli flakes
● pinch of paprika
● dash of fresh lemon juice
Method:
Cook the pasta as per packet instructions. When it's ready, place the spinach in a colander
and drain the pasta water over the spinach to cook it a little, saving one cup of the pasta cooking water.
In the still hot pot add a good dollop of peanut butter and stir in some of the pasta cooking water to make a glossy paste.
Add the pasta and spinach back into the pot along with some crushed garlic, dried thyme and chilli flakes, a dash of lemon juice and some paprika and stir to coat and combine.
Serve.
Jane's chilli and lemon browned butter noodles – proving that you don't need much for a good sauce
This recipe works on the same kind of principle; you don't need a lot to make a really good sauce.
This one lets the butter and lemon do all the talking and it's so simple.
● Noodles, to feed four
● 1 lemon, juice and rind
● butter
● 1 tsp crushed garlic
● pinch of chilli flakes
● parsley, to finish (optional)
Method:
Cook the noodles as per the packet instructions. When cooked, drain them into a colander.
Place the pot back on the heat and add 100g of butter to the pan and cook on medium to melt and brown until it begins to froth. Add in the lemon zest, chilli flakes and garlic and stir.
Toss the pasta through and add a spritz of lemon juice. Serve with parsley sprinkled on top.
Jane's lentil/mince bolognese – cutting the cost by using pulses
If you use some lentils or beans in your sauces, stews, casseroles, you can replace some of the meat (and cut the cost) but still get all the flavour. It's filling, delicious and cheap.
Or you can replace the meat altogether – but a little bit of meat will add a lot of flavour.
● 250g mince
● 1 brown onion, diced
● 1 tsp garlic, crushed
● 1 tsp fennel seeds
● 1 x tin tomatoes
● 2 x tins brown lentils, drained
Method:
In a large, flat pan, fry off your onion in some olive oil until translucent and sweet. Toss in
your mince and fry until brown and crisping, breaking it up as you go. Toss in the fennel
seeds and cook for 30 sec or until fragrant. Stir in the garlic and the tinned tomatoes and
lentils and a cup of water. Give it all a good mix and then simmer for 20 minutes until the
sauce is reduced and thickened.
Serve on pasta or polenta or mash.
Simple fried rice – just a few flavours will make an excellent rice
One of the things I see a lot of people do when they make fried rice is to really overload it with ingredients and sauces.
The real trick is that you don't need much and the rice will fill you up and carry all the flavour. It's not only simpler, it's cheaper.
Using one Chinese style sausage will add lots of flavour, but won't break the bank.
● cooked day old rice – whatever you have leftover
● 1 x Chinese style dried pork sausage, sliced
● 2 spring onions, white and green parts separated and sliced
● 1 tsp garlic, crushed
● 1 tsp ginger, crushed
● 1 handful shredded wombok
● 2 eggs
● soy sauce
Whisk you eggs and 2 tsp soy sauce together. Then, in a large, flat pan with a little oil, cook the egg as a thin omelette.
Fold it up, remove from the pan and slice it into ribbons.
In the same pan, fry off the white part of the spring onion and the sausage in a little oil until sausage is crisping.
Add the garlic, ginger and wombok and toss to mix through and wilt. A little crisping on the edges is good too.
Add the rice and toss through, then add the omelette ribbons at the end and serve with green spring onion garnish.
Find more of Jane's recipes here
See the full segment with Jane above
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