Jazz Recipes: the home of cool cooking...

PASTA OF LOVE

6 large size tomatoes
1 large onion
1/2 pound of bacon
Some top quality olives (green or black)
1/3 cup olive oil (extra virgin if possible)
Pasta

1. Slice the onions thinly
2. Slice them again crosswise so the pieces are as small as possible (you can use a blebnder - especially if you need to disguise onions if you have children
3. Fry until golden, stirring occasionally in a nonchalant manner, meanwhile cut the bacon into small pieces and drink some red wine
4. Put the bacon in!
5. Put the olives in
6. Remove the annoying bit of the tomato where the stem goes with a sharp pointy knife, cut the tomatoes in two
7. When the bacon has browned a bit add a cup of water and the tomatoes.
8. Stir frequently, mush the tomatoes and remove the skins when they become detached
9. Add more water when necessary to keep it a nice saucy consistency. This bit takes 15 - 30 minutes depending how lumpy or smoothy you like pasta sauce
10. When you think it is nearly ready cook some pasta (follow the instructions on the pasta bag)

Yes that’s right - NO HERBS OR SPICES. The bacon gives it a great taste, so does the fact that you are using fresh tomatoes and good quality oil.

Option:

Instead of or as well as bacon, you can use chorizo, pepperoni, Parma ham, Serano ham and possibly some other pork products.

Adding chopped celery along with the onions is also very tasty

If you really, really, really want to add herbs, some fresh basil won’t do any harm, but honestly it doesn’t need it.

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THAI FRUIT SALAD

Under-ripe tropical fruit (pineapple, banana, lichee, kiwi, mango, etc.
2 or 3 chillis (red and/or green)
1 tablespoon fresh lemon or lime juice
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1 or 2 tablespoon sesame oil
1 tablespoon fish sauce (yes! fish sauce from the Chinese supermarket)
1 shallot
A handful of fresh coriander sprigs/leaves

1. Cut the fruit into pieces
2. Chop the coriander finely
3. Cut the chillis into very thin rings
4. Slice the shallot into small pieces
5. Put everything in a salad bowl
6. Stir it up

This sound weird, but tastes amazing. You can also add sesame seeds and cashew nuts or peanuts for garnish

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PORK AND SAGE BURGERS

1 lb minced pork
1 handful fresh sage (must be fresh - it’s worth growing it just for this)
1 egg yolk
I small onion
3,4 or 5 cloves of garlic
Salt and black pepper
Dash of Worcestershire sauce

1. Chop the onion very finely, or blend it
2. Chop the sage very finely
3. Crush the garlic
4. Mix pork, egg, sage, onion and garlic together well
5. Add Worcestershire sauce, a pinch of salt and some black pepper (2 or 3 turns of a pepper mill should do it)
6. Mix again
7. Flatten into patties quite wide - they will shrink down
8. Grill or barbecue for 5 minutes a side turning once *

* Make sure they are cooked through (it’s pork remember) but not overdone.

You could also use this recipe for making tasty and very meaty sausages if you happen to have some pig’s intestines to hand.

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