Stokes Sauces: Perfect pastas - weeknight suppers in a bowl

Knowing your gigli from your trofie

http://www.stokessauces.co.uk/page/sauces/ketchup-and-sauces

Pasta can be as simple as spaghetti coated in butter with parsley and a grating of Parmesan cheese, or more complicated combinations of meats, seafood, sauce and vegetables.

Whatever your choice of pasta and whatever your sauce, it doesn't take much to make a simple dish taste divine.

Each of Italy’s 20 regions has a distinctive cuisine driven by climate and tradition.

Rich truffles and creamy Gorgonzola dominate the mountainous northern region of Piedmont; cured meat and plump sweet tomatoes are everywhere in central Umbria; and artichokes and seafood preside in Sicily.

Such ingredients are often used in sauces, paired with pasta shapes specifically designed to hold the sauce in the best way possible.

Cuciniamo - let's cook

Homemade Tomato Sauce

You'll need:

6 cherry vine tomatoes, halved
1 tin of chopped tomatoes
1 red pepper, diced
1 small onion, chopped
1 stick of celery, finely sliced
2 tbsp of green olives, pitted and chopped
1 tbsp of grated Parmesan cheese
4 or 5 leaves of basil
1 beef stock bouillon
4 tbsp of Stokes Tomato Ketchup
1 tbsp of Stokes Dijon Mustard

Here's how:

In a deep narrow pan, melt some butter and a drop of olive oil. Add and fry the tomatoes, pepper, onion and celery. Stir the combination round for 5 or 6 minutes.

Add the olives, tinned tomatoes, cheese, basil and bouillon, stir then blitz to a thick sauce with a hand blender. Add the ketchup and mustard and blitz again then season to taste.

If the mixture is too thick, add some boiling water and blitz to the right consistency. If it's too thin, tear some bread adding and blitzing it until you're happy with the sauce.

Try this: Flavour a knob of melting butter with some fresh thyme leaves. Add cooked penne, and sufficient tomato sauce to coat it well. Served with some grated cheese (a strong Cheddar is perfect), this is a deliciously simple pasta lunch.

Pasta 'Puttanesca'

This is a 'molto diliziono' dish, hot and fiery, rich and powerful, which is possibly why it's called 'puttanesca' - Italian for a lady of the night.

You'll need:

350 g of tomatoes, skinned and diced
5 or 6 tbsp of homemade pasta sauce (above)
1 tbsp of Stokes Chilli Ketchup
2 tsp of Stokes Chilli Jam
2 cloves of garlic, grated
50 g of anchovies, drained
175 g of black olives, pitted and halved
1 tbsp of capers, drained
1 tbsp of basil, torn
1 tbsp of thyme leaves
Olive oil

Here's how:

Gently cook the garlic in oil to infuse the flavour then add everything else.

Stir the ingredients together gently then on a low heat simmer the sauce for 40 minutes to reduce it. If it reduces too far, add some more home made pasta sauce. Cook your spaghetti as directed.

We always drain it, pop a knob of butter in the hot pan and return the pasta to coat it. This avoids it sticking and readies it for bathing in the puttanesca pasta sauce.

NOTE: Taste before seasoning the dish because of the anchovies. It will need a few twists of pepper but possibly no salt.

Sausage & Chestnut Pasta

You'll need:

Olive oil
1 onion, diced
450 g of Cumberland Sausage, meat out of the skin
200 g of chestnuts (tinned or packed, chopped
2 tbsp of Stokes Chipotle Ketchup
2 cloves of garlic, grated
1 tsp of rosemary, chopped
1 tsp of fennel seeds, ground in a mortar
1 glass of red wine
500 ml of home made tomato sauce
500 g of pappardelle or penne
Parsley and Parmesan to serve

Here's how:

Soften the onion in a little oil in a pan for 5 minutes.

Add the sausage meat, chopped chestnuts and garlic. Break up the sausage as it cooks for 15 minutes.

Add the rosemary, fennel seeds, wine and ketchup, stirring them in for 2 minutes. Add the pasta sauce and simmer for 15 minutes to reduce and intensify the sauce.

Cook the pasta as directed, drain and add to the sauce. Coat well in the sauce and serve with a sprinkling of parsley and grated Parmesan.

Pasta e Fagioli a la Minestra

This is a joy - it's pretty, the perfect summer lunch and seriously healthy too being a soup of cannelloni beans and pasta pieces - utterly yummy.

You'll need:

1 tin of cannelloni, rinsed and drained
1 tin of whole plum tomatoes
Parmesan rind (yes, rind), about 2 tbsp
2 carrots, sliced lengthways
2 stalks of celery, roughly chopped
1 vegetable stock bouillon
1 onion, diced
3 cloves of garlic, grated
2 tsp of Stokes Chilli Jam
1 tbsp of Stokes Chilli Ketchup
1 glass of dry white wine, a Soave
2 leaves of lasagna pasta, broken into 1 inch squares
1 tbsp of thyme leaves
2 tsp of chopped parsley
2 endives, sliced lengthways

Here's how:

Make a vegetable stock by putting the rind, carrots and celery in a pan with a little olive oil and fry for 5 minutes.

Cover with 2 pints of boiling water, add the stock bouillon (for extra flavour) and simmer for 30 minutes, topping the water up if you need to. Drain off and discard the solids keeping the stock.

In a large pan, gently soften the onion and garlic in oil for 10 minutes. Add the stock and tomatoes, breaking them up with a wooden spoon and pour in the wine.

Now add the herbs, chilli jam and ketchup and simmer to reduce the liquid and intensify the flavours for 15 minutes of so. Pop the pasta in for 10 minutes then add the beans, herbs and endives for another couple of minutes.