It’s a lazy one this week. Well, a busy one to be fair as we had a lot going on personally and professionally, as well as glorious long catch ups with friends and family. There were nights I didn’t have time to photograph dinner (one was left overs, another packet dumplings and veg), and nights where I just didn’t have the energy.
But two pastas and a beautiful big pot of soup got on the table nonetheless and no take away was consumed (actually that’s a lie but I’m not photographing lunches so you won’t see our celebratory burgers for a happy moment this week I’ll chat about another time!).
We started this week with this delicious pasta made with slim pickings in the fridge and because I was wanting to eat the delicious egg fettuccine in the fridge. I’ve already shared the recipe on my Instagram (and it’s below), and received a message from a beautiful human telling me she makes something very similar but with bacon and kale - so if you’re not a salmon fan, this would be delicious too. I can also imagine subbing in chicken as the protein (or larger salmon chunks) and adding almost any other green vegetable - peas would be lovely.
But this is how I made it this time;
Smoked Salmon Pasta with Broccoli
(serves 4)
Ingredients;
- 1 red onion, finely diced
- 3 tbsp of olive oil
- 1 head of broccoli, chopped into bite sized pieces
- 120g of smoked salmon, roughly chopped
- 4 tbsp of marscapone (or cream or a dairy-free alternative)
- 1/4 of a cup of vegetable stock
- 375 grams of fettuccine (I used a 375g box of egg fettuccine)
Method
1. Pre-cook the broccoli until tender. Drain and set aside.
2. Cook the pasta in well salted water as per the packet instructions.
3. In a large, deep fry pan, add the oil and onions. Cook on a medium heat
until translucent.
4. Add the mascarpone and stock, move to a low heat and stir well
until it all mixes together.
5. Remove half a cup of pasta water from the cooking fettuccine and reserve.
Drain the pasta.
6. Add half the pasta water, fettuccine, broccoli and smoked salmon to the
fry pan. Stir well on a low heat for a minute then serve
immediately.
Alexander rating? He absolutely loved this meal, but he absolutely loves smoked salmon.
Serve to a younger toddler? I would have used salmon fillets for a younger toddler to reduce the salt content, but apart from that I wouldn’t have changed anything!
Next in line was pumpkin soup which we made a giant pot of after receiving a big pumpkin from my in laws. Everyone has their own pumpkin soup recipe (and mine varies every time - try a granny smith apple added in one day if you haven’t, it’s really good!) so I won’t share an exact recipe.
The Cheds? Well the day we made this soup we visited some good friends who made a beautiful little antipasti lunch for us. Our contribution was crackers, including these Cheds, which we brought home the remainder of. Alexander thought it was a great invention (he loves inventing recipes) to dip Cheds into the soup rather than our usual toasty or buttery bread. It obviously didn’t soak up the soup but his invention was delicious!
Alexander rating? I’m not sure I even have to include this here - do all kids love pumpkin soup or just all the ones I know?
Serve to a younger toddler? I used to do toast soldiers with pumpkin soup for him when he was little.
This is not what this meal was meant to be…. but I won’t tell that story.
Once I cooked the capsicums (two, sliced) with some garlic (three crushed cloves), diced zucchini (one), olives (about one third of a cup), two 95g of tuna and a small bag of spinach wasn’t sure what I was going to do, but had some spirals in the back of the pantry tossed it through and popped some chilli on for M and I. Alexander doesn’t like chilli (he has tried it three times and does not want to again, he tells me).
It was delicious but I would probably make it as a side next time (without the tuna) as I was so hungry afterwards and felt like I needed more protein.
If it wasn’t for my little man, who does not like chickpeas, I would have omitted the tuna and added chickpeas to make it a full meal. But it was just too-hard-basket organising slightly different meals this week.
Alexander rating? He really loved it! Though I pulled his out before adding the spinach as he doens’t like big chunks of spinach in his food. He does, however, like those frozen spinach cubes in absolutely everything (the ones that are finely chopped) so if I didn’t have the fresh spinach to use I would have used these.
Serve to a younger toddler? I would have cut everything smaller (the capsicum and the olives) and included less olives for less salt as well as using the frozen finely chopped spinach cubes. Apart from that Alexander would have enjoyed it.
There is a good chance next week will be twice as busy as this week, so stay tuned to see what I manage to capture then….
If you’d like to receive a full round up of recipes direct to your inbox I’ll be launching my newsletter again this month which you can sign up to here.
Until then, happy cooking (however speedy!) and have a beautiful week.
Nat x