‘Whatever is in your Fridge’ Pasta

‘Whatever is in Your Fridge’ Pasta

It was my  ‘What’s in my fridge ‘ pasta day!

When I want to cook a quick meal with whatever I have in the fridge and having no idea what will be the final outcome. You just go with the flow and usually it comes out good and then you try and remember what went into it and if you can ever recreate it again. Usually you can’t. You kinda go into a strange mode of cooking without thinking. Kinda meditative. So you end up with a limited edition dish! 🙂 This pasta dish had mango in it. I had a mango and decided to use it before it went bad. I have never added mango to my pasta before and it came out really good. And topped it off with microgreens from Everything Green.

I have tried to recall how I did this and here is the recipe. I know there are lots of ingredients but I wanted to use up as many of the ingredients in the fridge as I could. If it did not go into the wok, it would eventually go bad and end up in the rubbish bin. I don’t like to waste food.

You do not need to use so many ingredients. Just use what you have. This dish was created based on what I found in my fridge. You can make this dish without many of the ingredients above. Just be confident, be creative and experiment and it will come out good! If it does not come out good, analyse what went wrong and then try again.

Ruqxana Vasanwala

Pasta with ‘Whatever is in my Fridge

Serves 4

Ingredients:

8-10 cups water

1 pandan leaf

2 kaffir lime leaves

1 lemongrass

2 tsp salt

400g spaghetti / fettuccini

4 tbsp olive oil

½ onion, chopped

3 garlic, chopped

1-2 green chili, chopped

1 chilli padi (birds eye chilli) , chopped (optional)

1 sprig Chinese celery – sliced thinly

1 stalk fresh green peppercorn, pounded

12 cherry tomatoes, chopped

4 sprig coriander leaves including the stems – sliced thinly

4 petals of ginger flower. sliced thinly

1 small mango, peeled, deseeded and diced

1-2 tsp salt

1 cup of microgreens of your choice

Method:

1. In a saucepan over medium heat, boil the water together with pandan, kaffir lime leaves and lemongrass. Once it boils, add the salt and then the pasta and cook until al dente about 10 minutes. Drain the pasta. Discard pandan, kaffir lime leaves and lemongrass but reserve a little pasta water.
2. While the pasta is cooking, heat up a wok on medium heat. Add butter and oil and put in the onion, garlic, Chinese celery and stir fry for 3 minute.
3. Add in the pounded fresh peppercorn, tomatoes, coriander leaves, ginger flower and stir fry for another 3 min.
4. Add the salt, mango and mix in the cooked pasta and 2 tbsp pasta water.
5. Serve the pasta warm with the microgreens sprinkled on it.