Tasty Tuesdays : Week One

Hey everyone!

So I posted on twitter that starting this week I am going to be running a series called Tasty Tuesdays, where I will be trying out recipes for meals, desserts and the extra sides & letting you know what they're like REALLY rather than just out of a cookbook :) This is part of my New Year Resolutions - to cook atleast once a week - preparing me for the big wide world out there >.<

The cook book I'm using for this series is "Nosh for students" as I am an AWFUL cook(apart from cakes - I'm awesome at baking cakes >.< ) and this is a very basic book - perfect for new starters

So here goes.. My first dish was Sausages & Pasta (it was more interesting than it sounds). It was supposed to be spicy sausages but I don't like spicy food:P

Ingredients (Serves 2):

- 1 mug of penne pasta

- 6 Sausages
- 1 Small onion
- 1 Clove of garlic
- 400g tin of chopped tomatoes
- 1 tablespoon tomato purée
- 1 teaspoon mixed herbs

The way this is cooked is good for students specifically because it allows you to cook each section in stages before adding it together at the end to ensure its still hot

- Start by cooking the pasta. - Penne Pasta takes 10-12 minutes to cook
- Cook the sausages - the books suggests frying, however I grilled them as that is healthier (for the time on the packet usually 18-20 minutes) then cook them into bite size pieces
- Fry the onions and garlic (make sure you've cut them up into small pieces don't just check an onion in there ;) )
- add the tinned Tomatos and tomato purée to a pan and bring to boil, then allow to simmer for 4-5 minutes
- Add the sausages,herbs and Sauce to the pasta then cook for a few more minutes to ensure everything is heated through.

And here is the final result:

So what was it like?
I was reasonably happy with how it turned out. The tomato purée I think added more flavour to the tinned tomato/sauce as usually it's not as strong as I'd like when I've only had tomatos used.
I was worried there was not enough garlic when I first cut it up, then after I cooked it I worried there was too much - but there was actually an ok amount!
I wasn't too sure what herbs to use - I ended up using Thyme as suggested by my mother dearest however I couldn't really taste it so I think maybe I should've used a bit more!!

I give the meal a 4/5. Difficult wise I'd probably give it a 2 or 3 - the hardest bit in cooking I find is getting the timing right - I was having a few issues with trying to stir stuff whilst preparing the next step.

I also looked like I had killed the tomatos in my kitchen as I got the sauce all up the wall and everywhere... woopsie!!!

According tot this book you can make the meal for just £0.97 per person if using the most basic ingredients! I did spend more than that though as it was my first time cooking properly for my parents so I wanted it to be yummy!! :)

Anyways - hope you like the post! If you want to keep seeing them let me know! if you have any recipes you want me to try drop me a message and I may give it a whirl!:)

Much Love,
Toodles ♥

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