Vegetarian Bleu Cheese Tagliatelli

This here pasta recipe was inspired by, or maybe just directly stolen from, my old flatmate Thomas. He was one of the only vegetarians I ever lived with so he and I and my other flatmate Stuart would always cook together whenever we had a chance. We lived near a Lidle (a very cheap German chain store found throughout Europe that even carries organic produce now) where good bleu cheese was in ready supply and Thomas used it in almost everything he cooked. The man changed my mind about mould.

The vegetables in this are just a suggestion. I usually use whatever is left in the fridge at the end of the week, but it would probably be nice as a simplified version; maybe just red pepper, cherry tomatoes and mushrooms or something. Apologies for the out of focus picture and I assure you it is much more delicious than it looks...

Ingredients:

• olive oil
• 1 bay leaf
• 3 cloves garlic
• 1/2 diced onion
• 1 chopped red pepper
• 1 thinly chopped carrot
• 4-5 broccoli florets chopped into mini-florets
• 5-6 mushrooms chopped
• red wine
• 1 cube vegetable stock
• 3-4 tbls sour cream
• water
• basil
• bleu cheese
• tagliatelli

Directions:

1. Heat the oil and bay leaf in a large/deep frying pan. Add the onion, pepper, carrot, and broccoli. Cover and saute for 5 minutes, stirring when needed.
2. Add the garlic. When onions are starting to become softened, add the mushroom and crumble the stock cube over the vegetables.
   
3. Add a hearty splash of red wine, cover and simmer a further 3-5 mins.
4. Add the sour cream and water. I usually do it by eye, adding enough water to thin out the sour cream, not too much. Just to make a sauce that covers the vegetables.
5. Add the basil and simmer uncovered on a very low heat, turn off if too much liquid is evaporating.
6. Cook the pasta according to instructions or personal taste. I usually dry it out in the pan on the stove after so it is not too wet.
7. Add the sauce to the pasta and mix well.
   
8. At this point you can either add the bleu cheese to the pasta as you are mixing, or if serving to other people, maybe allow them to add it individually to their plate. Either way go easy as too much can overpower the sauce.
   
9. Add cracked black pepper to taste and you are good to go!
   

Roasted Tomatillo and Chili Salsa

This is a variation of a recipe a friend gave me last summer; with the original all you have to do is throw all the ingredients into a blender and then serve, ending up a with an extremely fresh and zingy green salsa (add chilis depending on taste!). This roasted winter version turned out sweeter and thicker. Very different but just as good! Can be served with everything; as a snack with corn chips, on any mexican food (obviously), with eggs in the morning, in sandwiches, soups, what have you...

• 11 medium tomatillos
• 1 serano chili
• 1 jalapeno
• 1 pasillo chili (dried works as well)
• 1 clove garlic
• juice of 1 lime
• 1 bunch coriander/cilantro
• a little olive oil and salt

(Makes around 1 and 1/2 medium jam jars)

1. Preheat oven to 220 degrees celsius. Peel the husks (if still attached) off the tomatillos and quarter them. Together with the chilis throw them on a roasting pan with a little olive oil and salt.
2. Roast for around 25 mins or until tomatillos are soft and beginning to brown. Mine were in between a solid state and an almost carmelized one.
3. Deseed the chilis to taste, I removed about two thirds from each chili.
4. Place tomatillos, chilis, garlic, lime and coriander in blender and blend to desired consistency.
5. Serve still warm or cool, store in fridge, not sure how long it keeps as we usually finish it within three days...