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

Bun Cha - or Vietnamese noodles with pork and herbs

I love pork mince.  It tastes better than beef, not as strong, yet not as insipid as chicken mince, or as fatty as lamb.  Thanks pigs, so many good things from one animal.

I made this one a while ago, and we all loved it.  The shop spring rolls on the side might seem like a weird addition, but they were great.  I just used Aldi ones, the vegetarian ones, because I don't like the paste-y texture of meat in springrolls.

No thermomix for this one, but it's reasonably quick anyway.  And then your thermo is free to make a nice custard or a sorbet for dessert.


Ingredients

200g rice noodles
500g pork mince
2 tbsp of kecap manis
1/2 bunch of spring onions - I always use shallots because I can never find spring onions, and for ages, I thought they were the same thing.  Apparently they aren't, who knew?
2 garlic cloves
2 tbsp peanut oil
2 cups each coriander and basil leaves
100 g bean sprouts
store bought springrolls - we had 5 each, they weren't very big, and this seemed like the right number.

Chilli Peanut Dressing
2 tbsp peanut oil
2 long red chillies finely chopped
2 garlic cloves
1/3 cup peanuts, chopped
2 tbsps fish sauce
juice of 1 lime

What to do

Cook the noodles, I mostly don't read the packet instructions, just boil up some water, cook for a couple minutes then drain.  I taste a noodle to make sure it's cooked properly, that's about it.  Reserve 2 tbsp cooking liquid.  

Combine mince, kecap manis, onion and garlic and form into meatballs.  Flatten slightly and place on a a baking tray.  Chill for ten minutes to firm up.

Heat oil in fry pan and cook meatballs.

Transfer to a plate, reserve pan.

For the dressing, heat oil in reserved pan, add chilli and cook 2 - 3 minutes, then add garlic and cook for 1 minute or until fragrant.  Add peanuts and cook for 2 minutes, stir in fish sauce, lime juice and reserved noodle water.  Remove from heat

Divide noodles among bowls, top with meatballs, herbs, sprouts and springrolls.  Serve drizzled with dressing.

Amazing!