Three recent pasta dishes

Recipes for three pasta dishes I have made recently - chard, crème fraiche and olives; a baked pasta with sausage ragu and white sauce; and warm pasta with raw tomato sauce

Hello! My name is Rebecca May Johnson, I am a writer and cook and this is my Substack. This week’s newsletter gives recipes for three pasta dishes I have made recently.

---

Chard and crème fraiche pasta

This is a dish that followed on from last newsletter’s potato gratin, using what I needed to finish. Much of the flavour profile is the same, though the kalamata olives and creme fraiche make an entrance, giving it a sharper edge. I loved it. Afterwards we had baked bananas with warm chocolate hazelnut spread inside.

Ingredients

200g chard – stalks separated from the leaves
2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
6 anchovies, roughly chopped
pinch of chilli flakes or if you have it, ½ teaspoon of pepperoncino from a jar
2 tablespoons olive oil
25g unsalted butter
150ml crème fraiche
50g finely grated parmesan
15 pitted kalamata olives
100g dried pasta p/p – there were 3 of us so we had 300g

How to make

Put on large pot of water to boil (or boil the kettle for speed) – 2-3 litres. Add a tablespoon of salt to the water. Add the chard stalks for 2 minutes, then add the chard leaves and simmer in the water until tender - then lift it out with a slotted spoon leaving the water in the pan to cook the pasta. Drain the chard well in a sieve or colander, then chop the stems into 1cmx 1cm pieces and roughly chop the leaves.

In a large heavy frying pan that can accommodate all the pasta when cooked, melt 25g of butter on a low-medium heat with 2 tablespoons of olive oil. Add in 2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped and fry until fragrant. Then add 6 anchovies, roughly chopped and the pepperoncino or chilli flakes. Fry and stir with a wooden spoon to break up the anchovies. Then add the chard stems and leaves to the pan and stir round in the seasonings. Then turn the heat off and stir in the crème fraiche.

Put the pasta on to cook.

A minute or two before the pasta is ready, turn the heat on under the chard mix again and bring to a very gentle simmer so as not to split the crème fraiche. Mix in the parmesan and kalamata olives with the wooden spoon. Taste for seasoning and add salt and pepper to taste.

Drain pasta, reserving a couple of ladles of the pasta water. Mix the pasta in with the chard and crème fraiche really well with a large spoon, adding a few tablespoons of pasta water as you go, so it stays saucy.

Serve with extra parmesan.

---

Fennel Sausage and White Sauce Pasta Bake

I wanted a lasagne type pasta but didn’t have lasagne sheets and so made this. It has a few stages but actually only took an hour and is pretty simple with sausages for the ragu and just one layer of white sauce on top. Be generous with the parmesan!

This served 3 with no sides.
Pre-heat oven to 180C fan before beginning

Sausage ragu

Ingredients

6 Italian style fennel sausages – (or 6 British sausages with 1 teaspoon of fennel seeds and ½ teaspoon of chilli flakes) removed from their casings and broken up
4-5 ripe medium size tomatoes, roughly chopped
100ml white wine
50ml milk
1 medium brown onion, very finely sliced
2 garlic cloves, finely sliced
pinch of chilli flakes
2 tablespoons olive oil

How to make

Heat the olive oil in a large heavy frying pan on a medium-low heat. Add the sausage (and if using British sausage, add the fennel seeds now too). Stir the sausage round in the pan with a wooden spoon, breaking it up and cooking until it’s lightly browned all over. Then add in the sliced onion and cook gently until it softens but doesn’t brown, around 7-8 minutes. Then push everything to the side of the pan and add in the garlic and fry for a few moments on the pan’s hot surface. Then add the chilli flakes and stir. Then turn up the heat to medium-high and add the white wine and sizzle for c. 30 seconds, scraping the pan with your wooden spoon. Then add in the tomatoes and stir, then the milk, and simmer for 20 minutes on a low heat, stirring occasionally, while you make the white sauce and cook the pasta. Don’t let it dry out – add a bit of water if it gets dry.

White sauce

Ingredients

400ml whole milk – (remove from fridge an hour before cooking if possible, but not the end of the world if not!)
40g butter
20g plain flour
2 bay leaves (optional)
Salt and pepper

How to make

Melt the butter in a saucepan on a medium heat, when it’s foaming add the flour and stir in. Gradually pour in the milk over the heat, whisking as you go. Wait until it’s thickened before adding the next bit of milk. If it gets lumpy don’t worry, just keep whisking. Add in the bay leaves and simmer the white sauce on the heat for 5 minutes until thickens. You don’t want a really thick white sauce for this so just a bit thicker than single cream. Season with salt and pepper and turn heat off.

Assemble – for 3 people with no sides

100g pasta p/p (so we had 300g)
50-60g parmesan, finely grated - generous amount to cover the top

Cook the pasta until al-dente in boiling salted water– 100g pasta per person. Drain. Mix the pasta thoroughly with the sausage ragu. Put in a 9 inch x 9 inch (roughly) baking dish. Pour the white sauce over the top and spread it out. Cover over with a generous layer of parmesan – around 50-60g, finely grated. Bake for 20-30ish minutes until golden brown and bubbling.

---

Warm pasta with raw tomato sauce

I had someone over from the library baby group for the first time and hadn’t been to the shops so made this with the ends of jars of olives and capers some tomatoes my mum brought from my dad’s greenhouse and the last dried pasta in the house. I had to make it in a somewhat frantic way while my new friend looked after the two babies, who were also hungry and mine in particular was getting fractious. It was really delicious.

For two

Ingredients

6 really ripe medium size tomatoes (or a mix of sizes) with good flavour, quite finely diced
1 large garlic clove (or two smaller ones) finely chopped with a pinch of salt
15 pitted kalamata olives
1 tablespoon of capers in brine and 1 tablespoon of brine
1 tablespoon finely chopped mint
4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
200g dry pasta shells

How to make

Mix the diced tomatoes with the salted finely chopped garlic and the olive oil and a pinch of salt in a large bowl and leave to sit. Put on a kettle for the pasta, then add to a large saucepan with 2 teaspoons of salt and cook the pasta. While it’s cooking, stir in the olives, capers and mint to the tomatoes. Drain the pasta, saving a ladle of water. Mix the pasta and 2-3 tablespoons of cooking water really thoroughly with the tomatoes and serve immediately.