Wrestling and Pasta

Obviously not together. My son decided that a family night at the wrestling was just what our relatively newly divided family needed to enjoy ourselves. I have to say as a fan of comedy, watching my son and daughter screaming G-rated obscenities at the 'heel' wrestlers was worth the price of admission alone. But I was hungry. So modern famial harmony restored I came home to address this.

 So once home I wanted to eat, and - oh dear I was going to say pounded away at- but that is a filthy lie. Earlier in the day I put the stripped leaves of a bunch of basil into the food processor, a rough handful of pine-nuts, 2 cloves of garlic, some salt, pepper, and the rind of half a lemon ( I like the zing and freshness), I then added finely grated parmesan, about 100g if I am being honest and whilst the whole mixture whizzed cheerfully about in the processor's merciless blades I poured in about 100-150ml of olive oil. It was extra virgin, it has to be really, so make sure it is please. When the whole mixture smelt divine, and looked ( with apologies to Gwyneth Paltrow) gloopy I put it in a bowl in the fridge. You see I knew that when I got back I would just eat bread with copious amounts of olive oils and Indian dukkah if I hadn't . So you do see I CAN be organised, it;s just that i choose the 'fly by my seat of pants option' on a regular basis. For fun, you do see....

So once home, I put a large pan of water on to boil, salted with my usual disregard for health. Whilst it came up to the boil, I sliced some red pepper ( capsicum Australian readers, don't panic!) into fine slices, and cooked them and a half sliced red onion in about a tablespoon of olive oil. I added the pasta to the boiling water, then let the vegetables cook for another 4-5 minutes ( vegetables- who am I kidding, onion and peppers!!), I then added a small amount of white wine ( well for me- about 100ml), let it get syrupy, and then added 250mls of cream, this was also reduced for about 2-3 minutes.
O.K. pasta was now ready ( I used  penne, but I had the radiator shaped one as well, I was tempted, but I think a walnut pesto style, or maybe a red pepper reduction would sink in better...we will see) So I drained  it, added my pesto to the sauce mixture, tipped the pasta in, stirred well ( I should say tossed, or some other delicate motion, but I am nothing but honest!) and then divided it into a bowl for me, and 3 portions for me later, singledom, like Bridget Jones-but with competent cooking. I could say I left it there, but lying is wrong- I may have to take up running, a destiny more dreaded than any other, but well desperate times etc etc, so I added more parmesan at the table, and bloody delicious it was too.
Tomorrow is my brother's weekly dinner, let's see if I can finally impress him beyond the grand praise of "That was alright', wish me luck, I am going in!!!!