Smoked salmon pasta with capers

The old man came round for dinner last night and smoked salmon seemed like the way to go. I made smoked salmon pasta a few months ago but tried a recipe and couldn't seem to get the balance between creamy and acidic right. Looking for recipes yesterday, nothing really stood out as what I was looking for, so as I tend to do, I took my fav parts from a few different recipes and combined it to make my own....and holy jeebus was it good.
And it goes a little something like this....

Smoked salmon pasta with capers

50 grams butter
1 brown onion
3 cloves garlic
Salt/pepper
Pinch cayenne pepper (optional)
1/2 tsp dried oregano
1/2 red capsicum
375ml Campbells Fish Stock
1/2 lemon
250ml cream
1/4 cup capers
200g smoked salmon

Your favorite pasta. I got this amazing pappardelle from Nosh a couple of months ago and it looks so preeeetty...
Handful chopped parsley and freshly grated parmesan for garnishing

Melt butter in a frypan over medium heat. Chop the onion finely and cook until transparent. Mince the garlic and add to the pan, frying till lightly browned. Season and add oregano and cayenne pepper. Chop the red pepper finely, add and cook till soft. Add the fish stock and the juice from 1/2 lemon and boil over medium heat until reduced by half. Put the mix in the blender with 50ml cream and blend until smooth.
Put back in the frypan and add the rest of the cream and the capers. Cook down until thickened enough to coat the pasta. Taste...taste....taste! You might need to add more salt, or lemon or cream to get that balance right between the acidic lemon and capers, and the cream.
When done, take off the heat and add the salmon broken into large chunks.
Cook your pasta till al dente and toss through through the sauce.
Serve with a garnish of parsley and parmesan, and a couple of slices of crusty bread.
Yum!!

Tomato and Basil Spaghetti

F#*k Dr Atkins-I need carbs in my life. We eat a lot of pasta at my house, and feel special cause I'm about to share with you the basic tomato sauce which I use for this simple, light spaghetti, but you can also add meat to for bolognese which also makes what I've been told is the most amazing lasagna ever.

My dad has an Australian-Italian friend who came over and taught him this recipe- however as I tend to do, I've changed it a wee bit and got tips from various cooking shows. Here goes...

Tomato and Basil Spaghetti
Ingredients
1 brown onion
4 large garlic cloves
Salt
Pepper
1 tsp dried oregano
2x 400g can of whole tomatoes
200g tomato paste
1 heaped Tbsp brown sugar
3/4cup extra virgin olive oil
Fresh basil- 12 leaves
Pasta
Freshly grated parmesan

Heat a frypan to medium heat with a swig of olive oil. Chop the onion and cook till soft. The first tip for getting the most flavor out of your sauce is to cook these off as long as you can before the get too brown. You want them to get to a point where you can mash them with the back of your spoon, which usually takes about 10-12 minutes so if they're getting too dark too quickly, you need to reduce the heat. Once the onions are almost to that point, add the finely chopped garlic, oregano, and a decent amount of salt and pepper. Fry this off till the oregano and garlic are fragrant. Add the canned tomatoes, tomato paste and brown sugar. Fill up one of the tomato cans with hot water, add to the pan and bring the sauce to the boil. Add the whole lot of olive oil. It seems like a lot and will sit on the top looking not too attractive but this is the second tip for a flavorful sauce. Reduce the heat to a medium boil and cover. Cook for around 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. You're going to be looking for the oil to first melt into the sauce, then the oil will become a beautiful rich red color and sit on top of the sauce. Cook the sauce down till it becomes relatively thick, and is going the give the pasta a thick coating. Heat a pot of water to a rapid boil. Add a few heaped Tbsp of salt and cook your favorite pasta (I like to use thick spaghetti) till al dente and drain. About 5 minutes before the pasta is ready, chop 8 basil leaves finely and add to the sauce and cook for 5 minutes. Add large spoons of the pasta sauce to the cooked pasta until you've got a good coating on it. Plate up and add a little more of the sauce, more fresh chopped basil and a generous amount of parmesan cheese.

Tip: get yourself a loaf of crusty bread and soak up all this olive oil on the bottom of your plate. It will change. your. life.

Dinner at the Argentinians: Bacon ravioli with basil pesto

Had a dinner party with the work girls the other week at my good friend Cece's place. Cece is from Argentina and you are almost guaranteed a fuckin good time when hanging out with her. The girls whipped up an amazing bacon ravioli with basil pesto while I drank Gin and took photos, and we all woke up to our boyfriends trying to get away from our stinky garlic breath :)

 The view from Cece's street. Super jelly.

 And her amazing "bege" garden.
I've never made pasta before because it looks like there's a lot that can go wrong but the girls made it look easy so I'm willing to give it a try in the near future. So although there was no exact recipe involved, here's what went in.