PASTA!

Pasta is one of my favourite things to cook. It is so cheap and easy, and you can do pretty much anything you want to it!
Last night I made a really tasty sauce. Its so easy to make these kind of things up - just get the cheapest veges on special, Home brand pasta sauce- if you look up or down at Woolies or Coles you will find these under the Dolmio and other expensive brands for sometimes a quarter of the price. Essentially the same product! Same goes for pasta - at the moment, home brand pasta (Smart buy at Coles) costs 70c for a bag! So you can realistically cook a meal for 4 or 5 people (or more) for $5, in about 15 minutes!

The pasta sauces like Dolmio etc are usually a basic Napoli sauce - that is tomato, onion, garlic, and herbs.

First thing you need to do is put some water on to boil for the pasta. While that is happening, get your veges going - you can use anything you like, bear in mind that the smaller you cut things, the quicker they will cook. Heat up some oil in another pan, and add your veges of choice hardest to softest. Once they have been going for a couple of minutes, add the softer veges, and then your pasta sauce. Let that cook away until your pasta is ready. Drain the pasta and put the pasta in with the sauce, mix it and serve!

Good veges to add to tomato pasta sauce:

Capsicum
Eggplant
Zucchini
Onion
Garlic
Carrot
Squash
Pumpkin
Spinach
Silverbeet
Mushrooms (cook in a little oil or butter first)
Sweet Potato
Asparagus
Broccoli
Corn Kernels


I also like to add legumes, like tinned chickpeas, 5 bean mix. You can get these for about $1 a tin at Woolies and Coles.