Dinner with Julie

Pasta with Jamie’s Cheesy Peas

I think I may have found my new favourite end-of-a-long-day-don’t-feel-like-cooking-but-very-much-feel-like-eating comfort food sort of dinner. It’s easier to make than reheating a jar of spaghetti sauce. And probably costs in the vicinity of a buck. Which means more for the coffee fund.

And we have peas. Lots of them. Mike and W shelled them on the living room floor, with Lou catching the strays. I wanted to use them as more than green filler for our dinner plates – to show them off a little more – and I remembered a Jamie Oliver recipe for cheesy peas.

Just the sort of recipe I tend to look at, mentally nod and move on, because I know the gist of it already. Peas, butter, lemon and cheese. I could do that, easy. But do I ever? No.

It seemed like a good pairing for pasta, and I’m a fan of tossing peas into pasta water for the last cooking minutes and draining – it’s like dinner multitasking. So I morphed the two, taking his advice to scoop out some of the starchy water before draining it, then tossed the noodles (linguine, but it could be anything) with a splash of it, butter, juice of a lemon and grated Parm. Lots of pepper. Divine. I wish I had another bowl of it in bed.

Pasta with Jamie’s Cheesy Peas

Really, don’t even worry about the measurements. Make as much pasta and peas as you like, and dress them up with butter, lemon and cheese, adding enough pasta water to make a sauce.

enough pasta for 3-4
4 big handfuls of fresh or frozen peas
a knob of butter
lots of freshly grated Parmesan cheese
a squeeze of lemon juice
freshly ground black pepper

Bring a big pot of water to a boil and add the pasta; cook until al dente, adding the peas for the last 4 minutes of cooking time. Before you drain it, scoop out some of the water with a measuring cup.

Drain the pasta and peas and put it back in the pan – add a knob of butter, a squeeze of lemon and lots of freshly grated Parmesan cheese, and enough of the pasta water to make a saucy consistency. Serves 3-4.

September 23 2010 | pasta and vegetarian | 14 Comments »