Sunday, February 03, 2008

Comfort food for a cold day.....

I was actually planning on posting this last week, but I saw that my daughter, Beccy had posted a similar pasta recipe so I decided to leave it for another day. I know I am repeating myself because Sam made this when she was staying with us back in September. However it is such a tasty, easy little dish that is just right for a cold day that I am sharing it with you again. This time I used a brown harvest grain loaf for the topping and it worked just as well as white bread crumbs. I did have a little disaster with toasting the walnuts~ if I'm honest two disasters but it was third time lucky because I stood over them! I can hear you saying how wasteful and it was but I've definitely learned my lesson and won't be making this mistake again!
Method:
3 finely chopped leeks
5 rashers of English bacon
2 gloves garlic (minced /fine chop)
1 tbsp butter

~ saute together slowly over medium heat with lid on, until leeks are soft
~ turn heat to high for last 2 mins cooking time to crisp the bacon.
~ meanwhile cook pasta in salted water, drain, keeping some of the pasta cooking water.
~ toast a handful of crushed walnuts in a dry pan until golden
~ mix together: 1 cup or so white breadcrumbs, finely chopped parsley (I used quite a lot of parsley because I grow it and it's full of iron), grated parmesan, black pepper. Add a slug of olive oil and stir with crumb mixture until just moist.
~ stir a glug of double cream (I actually used single cream this time around as that was what I had in the fridge) into the leek mixture & grate in a little nutmeg. Add the pasta, with liberal glugs of reserved pasta water to keep moist and stir well to mix up all the ingredients evenly.
~ if your pan is not ovenproof, transfer it to one that is and then top with the breadcrumb mixture and put under grill (broiler) until the top is golden.

Voilà the end result is a most satisfying meal, albeit very calorific!!



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22 Comments:

At 3/2/08 10:16, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hey, you can cook!

It look so good, I'm going to put it on next weeks Menu Plan Monday.
http://orgjunkie.com/menu-plan-monday

Why not join in and show off!

 
At 3/2/08 10:38, Blogger ChrisB said...

misslionheart I'm not a cook according to my daughters~ they are the real cooks in the family! I don't really plan ahead very much. I see all these menu plans and then pinch ideas. I tend to cook the same things which is very boring!

 
At 3/2/08 12:01, Blogger katy said...

I would love this, but himself doesn't like leeks, so guess you will need to share this one with me yes? what do you mean NO huh!
i cant cook either and yes i tend to do the same old same old food!

 
At 3/2/08 12:30, Blogger ChrisB said...

katy you could always substitute leeks for onions, that's if himself likes onions of course!!

 
At 3/2/08 13:16, Blogger kitten said...

that sounds and looks tasty! Yeah, I sometimes get into that routine of cooking the same ole same ole.

 
At 3/2/08 14:19, Blogger Joy T. said...

MMMmmm calorific is sometimes a lovely thing on a cold day! I have to say though this is the second time I've seen 'rashers' used and I can't figure out what that is. I get bacon, we have bacon. Maybe it's the 'type' of bacon you have there?

 
At 3/2/08 14:36, Blogger Alix said...

That looks great I always think you can have more calories when it is cold as the shivering uses up energy!

 
At 3/2/08 14:44, Blogger ChrisB said...

joy we just call a single thin slice of bacon a rasher.

alix I'll remember that when I'm trying to justify eating something I shouldn't!

 
At 3/2/08 14:48, Anonymous Anonymous said...

*tummy rumbles*
Now that would warm me up a treat! Any left? :o)

 
At 3/2/08 15:11, Blogger Dea said...

Looks gorgeous Chris. There's something really comforting about breadcrumbs and pasta! I made huge homemade egg noodles after Christmas to make turkey noodle soup, but served the rest similar to this, although I wish I'd thought of the rashers and walnuts. YUM!

 
At 3/2/08 15:46, Blogger Unknown said...

You lost me at leek. And I dunno what a rasher of bacon is, is that a little or a lot? Ok, I read the comments, so that's 5 slices of bacon, I mena each rasher is one slice, I get it. :)

 
At 3/2/08 16:02, Blogger Sandy said...

I love leeks! Thanks for posting this before I went to the store!

 
At 3/2/08 21:22, Blogger willowtree said...

Yumm, that really looks pretty good. So there's on eggs in there at all?

 
At 3/2/08 22:40, Blogger ChrisB said...

WT no eggs and I guess you could omit the cream but add a little more of the pasta water. You can actually play around with the ingredients and I think it would still work out fine.

 
At 4/2/08 07:26, Blogger Steffi said...

Yummy!That´s looks really good!

 
At 4/2/08 08:38, Blogger Beccy said...

Mother you are such a liar. I love your cooking and have always told you you can cook. I am no better than you...I can't even roast beef!

 
At 4/2/08 11:25, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Omg, I'm drooling, Chris. That dish looks so yummy. I think I might even be able to taste it just looking at it.

 
At 4/2/08 11:55, Blogger Barbara said...

It looks Delicious Chris.

 
At 4/2/08 16:05, Blogger ~ej said...

that looks delish, and i've been looking for a recipe that my son would eat that has leeks in it (he's obsessed with leeks atm, i have spring onions and he calls them mini-leeks)....
how much is a glug? :-)

 
At 4/2/08 17:42, Blogger Amy W said...

That looks DELICIOUS.

 
At 5/2/08 04:37, Blogger Pamela said...

slug and a glug.??
terms I'm not sure.
It sure looks yummy, tho.

 
At 5/2/08 06:27, Blogger my4kids said...

Oooh that does look yummy!

 

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