Very Quick, Easy, Family Meal - Pea Pasta.

This is my 22nd random recipe challenge. (Dom from Belleau Kitchen challenges us each month to choose a recipe at random from our cookbooks to try.)  I was lucky to get a lovely quick and easy recipe that went down well with the family.  

If the kids ask what's for tea and I reply "pasta", I get lots of "yay"s.  Their favourite meal is actually one of our quick, shoved together concoctions from the storecupboard - chickpea pasta.  To make this, we cook some wholemeal pasta in boiling water, and while that's cooking, slice some garlic and heat it gently in a good slug of olive oil then add a drained tin of chickpeas to heat through too.  Mix the pasta into the other ingredients and sprinkle on a heap of grated parmesan.  Simple, eh?  That's what we do often on the nights I am working, we just don't have time to cook properly, or we haven't been shopping for any fresh ingredients.  Lazy meal but perfectly nutritious.

This recipe is really very similar.  I chose it randomly from Real Fast Food by Nigel Slater.  I recommend getting a copy of this book if you need to do quick, easy meals from time to time.  It is just full of ideas and suggestions for things to plonk together but with loads of variations and a whole heap of inspiration.  If you feel a little intimidated by the rather high class "leftovers" Nigel seems to have in his cupboards and fridge in the last couple of TV series, don't worry - as this recipe shows, so much of what is in this book is just really normal, accessible ingredients.

The front of the book states that there are 350 recipes all of which take less than 30 mins to make.  I have had this book for years and have made loads from it and been inspired by it so many times.  Perfect for busy families.  And it was published in 1992 - long before Jamie Oliver's fast food versions. My copy is a rather battered and grease spattered paperback and there are no photos in the book.  It's a book for using, not for sitting prettily on the coffee table.

So, onto the recipe.  Basically, cook your pasta.  Pour some olive oil into a pan, add some frozen peas, finely sliced onion and some mint.  Heat gently for 10 mins then mix into the pasta.

Gives us an alternative to our chickpea version and the kids loved it nearly as much.  It's their second favourite pasta dish.