Hungry? Here's a 10 minute meal that tastes amazing

I LOVE gnocchi. I love it so much that I even tried to make it myself (major fail, will tell you more about that another time). The good news for us that apparently aren't very gifted in the make-your-own gnocchi department, there are now hundreds of different types of fresh pasta available in almost all standard grocery stores. Hooray!!

I had a wonderful day off today, finally being able to spend some quality time on my blog and my glorious plans for the future. Glorious plans for the future made me hungry but it needed to be a quick meal so as not to disturb me too much when I finally got my creative juices flowing. 

This is what I had at home: 

1 packet of fresh gnocchi

1 can of crushed tomatoes

2 garlic cloves

fresh thyme

Chili flakes

Parmesan cheese

Salt and pepper

The How: 

Throw the gnocchi into boiling, lightly salted water. Cook until they start popping up to the surface of the water. Remove from water and put aside for now. 

Chop garlic, fry in olive oil in a pan together with chili flakes, until soft. Add the crushed tomatoes, salt, pepper and let simmer. 

Add the gnocchi and stir. 

Serve with fresh thyme and grated Parmesan. 

This is turned into a beautiful (super quick and not at all classic) Gnocchi Neapolitan in just under 10 minutes!

Now to get back to creating my Declarations of a Foodie empire!

Tagliatelle Naepolitan with Pan Roasted Cherry Tomatoes & Feta Cheese

Sometimes, less is more. 

When the current food trends seem just a tad too pretentious, it´s nice to go back to the basics. This classic tomato based sauce is so simple, yet so good, and can be varied indefinitely. Make your own version and change it depending on your mood; spicy, extra garlic, with Parmesan, with pecorino, with basil, with thyme... the combinations are many and all are good. I made mine a bit more basic and added my standard feta cheese and some quick pan roasted cherry tomatoes. 

The What: 

2 cans of crushed tomatoes, I recommend Mutti if you don't want to make it all yourself from scratch, tastes a lot better than many other brands!

2-3 cloves of garlic, finely chopped

Piri piri chili, to taste

1 cube of vegetable stock

½ cup of water

feta cheese

fresh basil

cherry tomatoes still on the vine

olive oil

a pinch of sugar, if you want

salt, pepper

The How: 

Carefully roast the cherry tomatoes in olive oil on low heat in a pan, until softened. Put to the side.

Gently fry the garlic and chili in olive oil in a pan, be careful not to burn the garlic. 

Add the crushed tomatoes, vegetable stock and the ½ cup of water and bring to the boil. Add salt and pepper to taste as well as a pinch of sugar if you want. Let simmer until the tagliatelle is ready.

Boil the pasta in salted water until al dente. 

Add the tagliatelle to the Napoletana sauce and make sure the sauce covers all of the pasta. 

Add basil to taste, arrange on a plate, crumble the feta over the pasta and top with the pan roasted cherry tomatoes. 

Serve while hot! 

Linguine with fresh asparagus, mushrooms, avocado and Parmesan cheese

My week of pasta started with a simple but amazing linguine with fresh asparagus. Unfortunately the asparagus wasn't local but I just couldn't help but to buy it anyway - and it tasted amazing, despite it being transported a few miles. It really is a sign that spring is on it's way!

The What

1 bouquet of fresh green asparagus

200 g forest mushrooms

1 ripe avocado

2 dl cream

1 tps of chili flakes (depends on how spicy you want it!)

½ freshly squeezed lemon

1 clove of garlic

salt and fresh ground black pepper

The How

Gently fry the garlic in some olive oil in a pan. Add the mushrooms and fry until they have gotten a little color, but are not burnt. 

Add the chili flakes, lemon and cream. Add salt and cracked pepper. Bring to the boil and then let simmer. 

Pick up one asparagus and hold it between the your thumb and forefinger on both sides. Bend it until it snaps and throw away the root part of the veggie. This part can be eaten, but it's more chewy and has a tendency to be a bit bitter. Repeat on the rest of the asparagus. 

Boil the linguine until tender. 

Throw the asparagus into boiling water with a bit of salt, boil for about 1 minute so that it's still nice and crispy. 

Slice the avocado.

Add the linguine to the cream sauce, add the avocado and mix together. 

Serve the pasta topped with asparagus and Parmesan cheese and some more cracked pepper, if you like. 

Enjoy!