simple fettuccine

After two years of cooking for myself at university, I thought I would share one of my favourite "I just got back from the world's longest class, I am starving and I just want to throw something quick together" pasta recipes as well as one of my personal favourite dishes in general. It's one of the simplest things you can throw together, hence simple fettuccine, because it's only a few ingredients thrown together and sautéed off in a pan and honestly takes about 15 minutes. This time, I used fettuccine as it's what was present at home, though I also think it's an easy way to make pasta dishes seem extra snazzy compared to the typical spaghetti or penne.

Ingredients...

- fettuccine

- chicken sausage

- rocket

- fresh basil

- salt and pepper

- butter

- olive oil

- milk

- garlic

- onion

How to...

- In a pot, boil the fettuccine in salted water, the water should be as salty as seawater to stop the pasta from being too bland.

- Once the pasta has been cooked, strain the pasta out but remember to keep some of that starchy cooking water for later.

- Heat up a knob of butter in a flat pan and throw in the chopped garlic and onion to soften and brown, if the butter starts to burn, add a bit of olive oil.

- Add the chicken sausage and sauté until it gets browned and heated through (if it has already been precooked, otherwise boiling it prior to sautéing it would be helpful).

- Add the fettuccine, salt and pepper to taste, and I like to add a dash of milk to give the pasta some dimension.

- Add in the rocket, basil, and a splash of the starchy cooking water if your pan is looking a bit dry. (But feel free to add more milk in if you want to give it a bit more weight.)

- Give it a final stir and plate up!

As with all recipes, this is simply a guideline or inspiration depending on how creative you are in the kitchen. You can by all means swap the fettucine for spaghetti or fusilli - whatever floats your boat or is in your pantry, and you can use chicken breast in place of chicken sausage, shallots instead of onions, spinach instead of rocket, etc., it really doesn't matter. Because the person eating it is going to be you so don't go about making a recipe with ingredients that you only half-like. Anyway, I hope this post has been somewhat inspiring, so enjoy!