About ten years ago, before my intestines gave up on me, I had a favourite pasta sauce that consisted of passata, red pesto and crème fraîche. But as you might have guessed, red pesto is no longer a staple in my kitchen. Now I come to think of it, pasta isn't either. But it will appear on our table every so often, since it is Matthijs' favourite food. So in an attempt to recreate that once favourite sauce, I threw ten olives and five sun-dried tomatoes in a food processor and pretended that it was pesto. And to my surprise it worked so well, that we eat this about every other week at the moment.
What might be good to know, is that I always make the sauce by eyeing the ingredients. The measurements I wrote down are based on what I do, but I actually never bother to use my scales and measurement cups. So do that the first time, and after that just improvise away. Even by adding herbs and spices, vegetables, or whatever you fancy. Because that's what keeps making your own meals interesting.
10 firm green olives
5 sun-dried tomatoes
olive oil
150g beef mince
200ml passata
40g mascarpone
salt
black pepper
fresh basil leaves
pasta of choice
serves 2
- Bring a large pot of water to the boil, and cook the pasta according to the instructions on the package. I trust you can keep an eye on this, because I'm not going to mention the pasta again until it's time to put it on the plate.
- Place the ten olives and five sun-dried tomatoes in a food processor and blend them to a paste.
- Heat a frying pan, add a little olive oil and cook the mince.
- When the mince is almost cooked through, add the olive and tomato paste. Cook for another couple of minutes.
- Reduce the heat, and add the 200ml of passata. Stir until everything is combined, then add the mascarpone, and stir it through the sauce. Make sure the sauce doesn't boil from this point on, otherwise the mascarpone will split.
- Add salt and pepper to taste.
- Divide the pasta and the sauce over two plates and sprinkle with the basil leaves. Enjoy!
