Pasta with tomato and baked beans sauce

When you have hungry, tired and a little poorly kids at home, a steaming bowl of pasta in tomato sauce might just make their day better. It worked in my house! There is something very comforting and summary in a pasta dish with the heady aroma of tomatoes and oregano. This is a vibrant dish and baked beans give it an extra depth of flavour. It’s a trusted recipe, one that I go back to all year round. Hope you’ll enjoy it too.

A packet of pasta

1 packet of smoked bacon, chopped

1 onion, sliced

3 garlic cloves, chopped

1 carton of passata

1tsp sugar

1tsp dried oregano

1tsp paprika

1 tin of baked beans

1. Cook pasta according to the packet instructions. I used farfalle and wholewheat spirals.

2. Heat up the frying pan and add bacon. Fry on high heat until crisp.

3. Add the onion - at this stage you should have enough fat from the bacon to fry the onion until soft. If not, just add a tablespoon of olive oil.

4. Add garlic and fry for a minute or so. Make sure it doesn’t brown as it’ll make it taste bitter.

5. Add passata, sugar, oregano, paprika and a cup of water from the pasta pot. Cook for about 5 minutes until the sauce reduces slightly in volume.

6. Add baked beans and cook for a few more minutes. Season with salt and pepper.

7. Add pasta, mix well together and serve.

Egg, mayonnaise and turmeric sandwich spread

So this is not much of a recipe! Well, it is but it’s so quick and easy that there isn’t much to write. You decide how much of each ingredient you use, depending on what you like. This recipe works for me but feel free to tweak it as much as you want!

3 hard boiled eggs

1tbsp mayonnaise 

half a tsp of turmeric 

Black pepper to taste

1. Mix all ingredients in a bowl. 

2. Season with black pepper. 

3. Enjoy!

Simple potato soup

This soup is such a classic in Polish cuisine. Potato soup must surely be the easiest dish to make! I remember having it at least once a week as a child. It wouldn’t necessarily be blended as, in those days, clear soups seemed to be more popular in Poland. I only started blending mine when I moved to UK (fifteen years ago!) and prefer them that way. Fusion cuisine, eh? It’s also much easier to feed the kids as there is NOTHING that they can take out of their bowl!! So, yes, a winner! Ok, so they can just refuse to eat but hey, I’m ready to take that chance...

I used a parsley root in this recipe which is as common in Poland as parsnip is in UK. They look very similar (parsley root tends to be smaller and thinner), smell similar as well and I know plenty of fellow Poles who took one for the other. If you can’t get hold of one just use parsley leaves. I get mine in my local Polish/Eastern European shop. I’m pretty sure you can find one near you! Or online. You can find everything online these days!

Also, in this recipe, I used white pepper and pink Himalayan salt but you don’t have to. I sprinkled some dried chilli flakes on top to give it a bit of warmth (it was a chilli day yesterday) without altering the dish. Hope you enjoy it!

1 tbsp rapeseed oil

1 onion, sliced

1 celery stick, sliced

1 carrot, sliced (I left the skin on, just scrubbed it clean)

1 parsley root, sliced (not peeled, the same as the carrot)

5 potatoes, peeled, cut in fours

1l stock or enough to cover all the veg

Salt and pepper to season

1. Heat up the oil in the pan. 

2. Add the onion and celery stick and fry on medium heat until the onion turns translucent.

3. Add the carrot and parsley root and warm up for a minute or two. Stir occasionally so it doesn’t catch or turn crispy. 

4. Add potatoes, again, warm them through for a minute. 

5. Add stock and leave to cook for approximately 30 minutes on medium heat or until all the veg is soft. 

6.  Once the veg has softened up and cooked through, turn the heat off and leave the soup to cool down. 

7. Blend everything until smooth, warm up again and season to taste. 

8. Serve with some chilli flakes and buttered slices of sourdough bread.