Reconfined? But at least there’s pasta

 

We’ve been away. For a proper holiday. Admittedly it was Cornwall, rather than actual abroad, but we ate indoors at restaurants (which we haven’t really done since pre-pandemic) and did touristy things, albeit with a certain amount of caution. It was lovely. It’s now 5 days since we got back, and there seem to be no ill-effects (although I suppose it’ll be another few days before we can be certain).

However, the day after we got back, I woke up with a sore throat (lateral flow negative, seems to have gone away) and Canterbury hit 100 cases a day, for the first time since January. So I guess we can’t stop worrying yet. We skipped a planned trip to the theatre on Sunday didn’t happen. From what I’ve seen and heard on twitter, mask wearing at our local theatre has not been exactly extensive, nor have they been exactly pro-active in encouraging it, so staying at home seemed the better option.  

With cases so high here, it’s probably back to home cooking for a while as well. Fortunately having nearly two weeks off means I’m feeling a bit more enthusiastic about this, with several Ottolenghi (for which read, complicated and time consuming but delicious) recipes scheduled in the coming days/weeks, but last night’s meal came from Jamie’s Italy – Pasta with roasted tomatoes and meatballs.

I chose to do this this week because I had pork mince left over from making Mapo Dofu (which I blogged here), and when I discovered that yesterday was World Pasta Day, I had to do it then, didn’t I?

The first step is to roast a lot of cherry tomatoes (recipe says 500g for two, I think I did about 400g, which was about as much as the roasting tin would take. The recipe also says to blanch and skin them first. I didn’t. Partly because life is too short, and partly because the picture in the recipe book shows tomatoes definitely with their skins on! Add some chopped garlic, bay leaves, olive oil and a splash of white wine vinegar and bung them in the oven for half an hour while you make the meatballs.

Fry a finely chopped onion and some chopped up raisins, until the onion is soft, adding some crushed up pine nuts for the last minute or so. When this has cooled, mix it with pork mince and finely chopped mint. You are also supposed to add breadcrumbs but I forgot. They were still delicious. Sear the meatballs on all sides, then add them to the tin with the tomatoes, and put the whole lot back in the oven for another twenty minutes.

Tomatoes and meatballs, heading for the oven

Cook the pasta, then drain and mix it with the cooked tomatoes and meatballs. The recipe says to mix in some grated pecorino at this stage, but to simplify things I just added it at the table, because by this point I was too hungry to allow for any further delays. It was delicious, and definitely cheering, at a point when not a lot else is. I don’t like this time of year at the best of times, but add on post-holiday blues and Covid worries and it just feels utterly grim. And I don’t exactly feel like deploying my usual strategy for dealing with this time of year, which is booking lots of theatre tickets and planning restaurant trips. Planning anything which involves leaving the house at the moment feels like a hostage to fortune, so very definitely a time for home cooking. (Tonight there will be an Ottolenghi, which seems to involve the oven, the food processor and several pans. I will report back, if I’m not too traumatised by the time I eat it).