Tagliatelle with pork, mushrooms and truffle oil

I went looking for this recipe yesterday, frantically searching through back copies of my cooking magazines, scanning the indexes, then reading them carefully with my finger trailing down the page, then finally reading each entry out loud, because I couldn't find it.  I'd cooked it fairly recently, I made it for our friends who had twins, because it freezes quite well, and because it isn't full of exotic and spicy ingredients, a good choice for people who have new twins and need the comfort of home cooking without the effort of making it themselves.    I thought I must be going slightly mad, because it had just vanished.  I finally located it by looking through the pages of the magazines, for some reason, it isn't in the recipe index, which is complete madness.  I figure if I put it in the blog, then at least I should be able to locate it again when I decide I need to make it again.

This is a recipe that is quick and delicious, two of my favourite things

Ingredients

20 g dried mushrooms - I used shitake, but porcini would be even better probably.
1/3 cup olive oil
1 onion
1 carrot
1 stick celery
40 g serrano ham
1 garlic clove
500g pork mince
1/2 cup red wine
400g tin chopped tomatos
70g tin tomato paste
1/2 cup basil leaves
truffle oil
parmesan

Soak the mushrooms in 1/2 cup of hot water, then chop finely.

Put carrot, celery, onion and garlic in thermo, chop at speed 5 for 5 seconds.  Scrape down, add 20 mls of olive oil, and cook on 100 degrees for 5 minutes, speed 1, reverse.

Add mince and cook for 8 minutes, speed 1 reverse at 100 degrees

Add red wine, tin tomatoes, tomato paste and basil leaves, cook for 8 minutes, speed 1 reverse, 100 degrees.

Serve over pasta of your choice.  Last night I used tagliatelle, but I have used bows or spirals.

Drizzle with truffle oil and top with parmesan

Chicken, Red Capsicum, Tomato and Chickpea Chilli

I'm thinking I will make this, this week.  I had it on the list to make last week, but last week was crazy busy, I worked 4 days, on top of my two afternoons, and on my day off I went to the Eisteddfod.  And it wasn't even a day off, because I had to leave and go to my afternoon job.  So I didn't get around to making this one.  Maybe today, if I go and get the chicken out of the freezer when I'm done here.

Ingredients:

1 kg chicken thigh fillets, cut into 3 cm pieces
1/3 cup seasoned flour
1/4 cup olive oil
1 large red onion - I will be using brown, because I don't have a red one.
2 garlic cloves finely chopped
2 red capsicums seed removed, sliced into 1 cm pieces
1 tbsp tomato paste
1 can chick peas (400g)
1 can tomatoes (chopped, 400g)
3 long red chillis (or dried chilli, about a tsp)
1 tsp tabasco sauce.  If I have it, it goes in, otherwise perhaps a pinch more chilli
1 cup coriander leaves
Cous cous to serve

Dust chicken in flour
Heat 2 tbps oil in fry pan, fry chicken until golden, about 4 minutes, then set aside
Cook onion, garlic and capsicum in remaining oil until onion starts to colour (about 2 minutes).  Add chickpeas, tomato, chili and tabasco and season to taste.

Add chicken, cover with a lid and simmer over low heat for 30 minutes or until chicken is tender and sauce slightly thickened.

Serve with warm buttery cous cous.  Or I might do rice or even polenta if I haven't got cous cous.  Garnish with coriander.