The title says it all...A knucklehead [that's me] cooks...Again. Yes, again folks...That means I've cooked before and, without seeming immodest, it was pretty bloody good, especially for someone who doesn't really get into cooking all that much. No, I don't hate it, I'm just not passionate about it like some others. I give it a go though and to be honest feel pretty pleased that I have a few skills like this. Who knows, maybe I'll even make someone a good partner someday?
The last time I cooked was almost a week ago and you can see the post, and culinary results of my efforts in this post if you're interested. That meal was something I'd done several times though, I felt comfortable with it...Tonight's though? Well, I was breaking new ground as I'd not tried it before - Anything could happen and I was ready for it.
This recipe was given to me by a girl at work with a promise that it was good. Yeah ok, maybe with her cooking it, but me doing the cooking? There's just no telling what might result. So, I had the pizza shop on speed dial in case my dinner didn't turn out very well.
This pasta dish is very simple and doesn't even have many ingredients at all. Two punnets of cherry tomatoes, a couple cloves of garlic, basil, fetta cheese and olive oil makes the sauce. Add some pasta and it's done. Of course I added parmesan cheese and sourdough garlic bread to round out the meal. Here's how it happened.
Chop the cherry tomatoes in half. I think you could probably skip this step and use them whole but some of mine were of different sizes so I cut them down to about the same size to cook more evenly. The purists amongst you will note I have plastic chopping boards...Please be kind. I know wooden ones are legit...I have to work with what I have though right?
Crush some garlic. I peeled it first and used two fairly large cloves although you could use more or less depending on how long you want to keep the vampires way. You could chop it if you like, but I was keen to stick with a more rustic feel.
Combine it all in a baking dish, throw on some salt and pepper and drizzle on about 1/4 cup of a decent olive oil - I use a virgin olive oil for the additional flavour. [Remember fetta cheese is salty so be careful with the salt you add.]
Next I cut up the cheese. Just a word on fetta cheese here; It is a Greek thing and there it's spelled feta with one 'T'. Here, unless it's a product of Greece it's spelled with two, fetta. It's generally the same thing although I'd imagine the imported one may taste better? I don't know because I prefer to buy Australian products...But I thought I'd cover off on it before someone tore me a new one for spelling the cheese incorrectly.
I cut the fetta into strips then cubes making sure they were roughly the same size, again for even cooking. I had a taste of it at this stage and decided to add a little more salt to the tomatoes as it wasn't overly salty fetta cheese.
Below you can see the pre-oven tomato and fetta, the in-oven and the post-oven fetta and tomato mix. I didn't have any idea on how hot to make the oven, [thanks girl at work], so I made it up. I heated it up to 200C° [fan-forced] and put the tomatoes in for 40 minutes.
Straight away the smell started to permeate the house and it smelled good. Just a note here, you could add the garlic in later, and in fact don't need to use fresh garlic - The crushed version in a jar would work as well. I like fresh though.
Whilst the tomatoes were doing their thing I chopped the fresh basil - There was no rhyme or reason, just chopped up a little, rustic-style. It gets mixed into the pasta at the end so it doesn't have to be finely chopped, and I figured the larger pieces would give a nice flavour-pop when eaten with the pasta.
I put a large saucepan of water on to cook the pasta, rigatoni as that's what I had in the pantry, and threw the sourdough garlic bread into the oven to heat a little. Just a note here...I'm a big fan of searing grill-lines into my garlic bread and so I only really start the bread off in the oven preferring to finish it off on the grill. The burn-lines look good and add some crunch and flavour to what is already a legit food. Garlic bread, mmm yum.
When the pasta was done and drained it was time to get the tomatoes and fetta all crushed up which I did with a mashed potato-masher thing. Maybe it's just called a masher. Once that was done it was time to get everything together and plated up.
Now...A word on the plating. I don't have white plates in the house. I have pink and light green ones...Yeah, I know right? What the hell! Anyway, that aside, I had to push on with the plating and you can see the result below. I hope you can excuse the colour of the plates. [I found the only non pink or green bowl in the house for the pasta.]
The images above are the end result. I always serve parmesan cheese with pasta of course and chilli too. Unfortunately I forgot to buy fresh chilli today but the dried stuff works in a similar way so I ran with it. Unfortunately the heat off the pasta started to make my basil garnish discolour a little which makes my photos bad but I think you get the idea. I also hadn't stirred in the fresh basil yet - I forgot.
The taste was really good, quite flavorsome, and I was pretty pleased with the whole thing just as is. I think one could play around with it, add things like roast chicken or peas, olives and capers, or maybe crispy-fried bacon pieces; There's no rules. But it was very good as is and I'll be making it again.
So there you have it...An easy Friday night meal and one that even a knucklehead like me can prepare without messing up.
Design and create your ideal life, don't live it by default - Tomorrow isn't promised so be humble and kind
Discord: galenkp#9209
You found a new niche “cooking” well done.
My mum taught me the basics of cooking as a very young kid and I've cooked for most of the rest of my life...It's not something I'm passionate about, but know how to do.
Hello master chef knucklehead 👋 Out of topic but what kind of camera did you use? 🙈 Your food photo looks so appealing to me 😋😋😋😋😋😋😋
The photos in this post were taken on my Samsung S20 phone although some of my post-photos are taken with my Olympus camera. I'd say most with my phone though.
I may have to change phone then 😝 My town is near a Samsung factory and my friend is working there, I may get 20% discount 😱
Worth a try.
haha, yes, all for great photos 😂
What a feast! Garlic, feta (with or without that extra T) and sourdough are my kind of yummy. Nice recipe @galenkp
It was pretty good indeed and I was happy with my performance considering I'm not very skilled in the culinary arts. My main skills lie elsewhere, like eating!
Now I understand why the knucklehead cooked.....At least you have the eating skill taped!
Yeah, I got eating sorted. I've been doing it for 51 years.
#expertlevel
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Thanks bot.
KP! It took me till now to know what ot stands for.
Now after me getting hungry by picture one, it dawned on me
Mr. Galen Knucklehead Pastachef
So chef its nice to mEAT you
Lol...I always tell people it stands for Keep Private but of course the truth is, Knucklehead Pastachef.
In truth I'm not much of a cook but it suits me to be a little more well-rounded as a man, you know, able to do more than the usual stereotypical things, and so I try to cook sometimes. I even clean up as I go too.
This one was a good meal, easy and tasty.
It looks good and like you said a recipe that can be modified to suit taste and ingredients.
It was so easy and tasty too. Thanks girl at work. 😬
I actually sent her a picture of it last night and she came back with mine looked better than hers! 🤪
It is fun when you have the base part of the recipe then can adjust and add things.
Yep, I've got a few ideas but even the basic thing was so good. 😁
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You seem to have a pretty good handle on the food photography ;D
And great that it tasted as good as it looks :)
It's the same as all of my photos...Happy accidents.
When you're consistently getting happy accidents you might have to consider that they're not accidents anymore XP
Lol...Yeah I have considered that...But sometimes tripping over my feet and accidently hitting the shutter release and getting a good photo makes for a good story. 😆
That does happen sometimes, I once got this great somewhat artsy shot of the beach in the days before my Lifeproof case when I had walked into the water with my (water resistant but I wasn't taking any chances) phone and was taking photos of the kids being kids and then this wave came so I put the phone behind my head to try to somewhat protect it from the splash (didn't want to take eyes off children, priorities) and must have hit the take photo button while doing so XD
The old behind the head to avoid a wave photo. Classic Ry...Classic.
So you know how to boil pasta, now you learned the additional tasty additions, well done!
Always good to know how to cook what you enjoy, shortcuts are best with favourite tastes blended in... You don't have a chilli bush growing outside the kitchen, WOW you will have to remedy that one too....
My mum made sure I knew how to do things from a young age - Cook was one of them. I'm no chef, but can do stuff nonetheless. I can also wash and iron clothes, sew buttons, darn socks, make beds (hate doing it), clean the house plus show courtesy and respect among other things. So...boiling pasta is easy. 😬
The herb garden is still a work in process so no home grown chilli's just yet.
My eldest doesn't cook much, younger son does, also taught them all the how to's... except ironing which I myself hate with a passion.
Next time you buy chilli, keep the seed, dry them in windowsill for a week or so then pop them into some rich soil in a container, see what happens 😁. Enjoy some sun not too much, hence a container you can move to find the right spot....
I've got chilli planted actually, just hasn't paid dividends just yet...It's looking good though. Harvested some lemons today though, a nice haul overall. I'm pretty pleased with it actually; I've got a few orders from work so will take a bag there tomorrow an hand them out. Feels kind of nice.
I'm actually really good at ironing to be honest. It doesn't mean I like doing it but I'm very good at it. I'm not sure if it's a good thing to admit though.
Ha ha, not hot enough yet! Lemons are so versatile and great to have in the garden.
So glad years of ironing a behind me, now I peg precisely and allow sun and wind to do the rest. Last time I switched an iron on it exploded, sure sign 😂
That looks pretty damn good! You made me hungry lol..
And I never knew that Feta vs Fetta part you mentioned, thanks for that lesson. I see the color of the Fetta is a bit more yellow-ish than the Feta I usually buy, so I probably don't have the Greece one :) Good to know, will look for the "real" deal to test that as well!
Lovely post! If a post about food makes me hungry, it was a succes haha
Hey there, thanks for your nice comments and sorry for making you hungry.
There's a show I watch on TV sometimes that's all about cheese; I knew cheese was an art to produce but until I saw that show I never realised how involved it could be and how vastly different cheese can be when different production methods and milk is used. Pretty interesting stuff really, considering I like me some cheese.
oh yeah, I do know about cheese in general, so many good ones out there!
but just never knew about fetta / feta difference. I don't think I ever really had a REAL fetta so I must try it :)
The only thing I know about cheese is that I like to eat it. 😜