Gemma When you’re busy and life is hectic, feeding your family and friends can often get pushed down the list of priorities. Even before kids my time was split a million ways. Finding the time to cook fresh food after a long, unresolved day in the office is not my favourite thing to do. So when I can, I think of future Gem. I make something — like this pasta sauce — that I can serve fresh right now, or freeze for some future, exhausted evening.
Speedy, tasty and versatile
Cooking for others is an act of love. It doesn’t have to be fancy, or complex, it just has to be real. My Black Olive, Chilli and Tomato Pasta Sauce is a favourite to freeze or eat fresh because it ticks so many boxes. I filled my freezer with it when we were preparing for the arrival of baby number two. This pasta sauce is vegan, packed with veg and it’s satisfying beyond belief! It’s my own mash-up, somewhere between a Napolitano and a Spicy Arrabbiata. I really hope that this recipe makes it to your table and feeds your hungry family – be that your Nan, your children or your flatmate… It’s one of those dishes that everyone can enjoy. The leftovers — should you have some — makes a wonderful lunch for the next day, too!
Lets talk prep
When I cook, I prep everything at the start. It makes me a better cook, reduces stress and cuts down on the chaos left at the end of the meal. Getting everything in its place – mise en place – is my number one tip for busy people looking to cook more. Start off with a bit of organisation.
I chop everything by hand in the video because I like the texture of the roughly chopped ingredients – it gives a nice bite to the dish. But if you need to be super speedy then feel free to use a food processor to grate/blitz the ingredients.
Missing ingredients
I film all these videos in their raw and honest setting – this is literally about to be served as our dinner and there is often a scene of chaos behind the camera as everyone reaches the pre-dinner frenzy that happens in our house every night. What you will notice is that I am out of celery, so it’s missing from the video. I am very much an adaptive cook and I tend to just work with what I have. That’s my second tip – adapt and make it your own.
Pasta
I usually serve this with spaghetti, it does a great job of lapping up the sauce. Tagliatelle would work well too. But use whatever pasta you prefer/have in. On the night I filmed this video one of my sisters stopped by on her way home. She eats a veggie/vegan diet so I set her a place at the table. I didn’t have enough spaghetti to go around so I used Orzo for the children and I found that it made a great addition so I will remember that for the future. I only ever freeze the pasta sauce, not the pasta itself — but maybe you could for an even quicker meal?
This sauce fed two little ones and three adults with a little left over for lunch the next day — normally I would just double up to make enough pasta sauce to freeze some.
Freeze or fresh pasta sauce
It’s not always the top of our list to get home and cook from scratch. When we are running on reserve energy or have to dash back out for a class/catch up/the kids/work drinks… whatever your reality, being busy makes the thought of cooking a lot less appealing. This dish is all about balance and taking back some control.
The power of sharing food
It doesn’t matter if your kids are grown up, you live alone, have three small children and counting or you live with your partner, parents or pets. When we talk about Family Feed we envision family as a fluid thing. When we share our family food, we have no expectations that your family will look like ours. At the heart of this blog is the notion that sharing food is good for the soul. Gathering your closest kin around a table and breaking bread together is a powerful act of love. When we break bread at our table, we find it more achievable if the food is simple, honest and wholesome.
It’s not always easy to feed the people we love, sometimes it’s an effort to assemble beans on toast. But for me, in my life food, is joyful. It connects us in a way that nothing else can. I hope this recipe makes its way to your table and if it does we want to know what you think in the comments or send us a pic over on Instagram.
Fresh or Freeze Favourite — Olive, Chilli &Tomato Pasta Sauce
Ingredients
- 1 red chilli I don’t remove seeds, but you can
- 75 g pitted black olives drained weight
- 2 courgettes
- 3 onions
- 2 carrots
- 2 ribs of celery
- 5 cloves garlic
- 125 g jarred artichoke hearts drained weight
- 2 roasted red peppers
- 1 tbsp dried chilli flakes
- 680 g passata
- Olive oil
Instructions
Preparation
- Finely chop your onion, carrots and celery
- Grate your courgette
- Finely chop your remaining veg: garlic, roasted peppers, black olives, artichoke and chilli. Getting a nice fine chop here is key to a good sauce (although I prefer if the veg is hand-chopped, it can be done in the food processor). I keep my chilli separate until I separated the kid’s portions.
- Put your pan on a medium to high heat and add a good drizzle of olive oil
- If you are serving this as soon as it’s cooked put a pan of water on to boil
Cooking
- Add the soffritto to the pan with the oil and fry until soft, stirring occasionally
- Add the courgette, stir to incorporate and fry for 3-4 minutes until soft
- Add your garlic and stir, leave it to fry for 1/2 a minute
- Next add the roasted peppers, black olives and artichoke. Stir to incorporate and leave it to fry for a good 5 minutes. It’s ready when you start to see the veg turn golden brown
- NB: In the video, I separate a ladle into another pan for the children
- Add the finely chopped fresh chilli to the main dish. In the video I don’t add any fresh chilli in the children’s
- Next, add your dried chilli
- I added a heaped tablespoon for the main dish and a pinch for the children’s
- Add the passata and stir it through. I added around 4 tablespoons to the children’s dish and the rest to the main dish. Add a little water to the empty jar of passata and give it a little jiggle to get the last bits from the bottom of the jar then add to your pan
- Season to taste, reduce to a low heat and cook for at least 10 minutes to allow all the flavours to marry
- Meanwhile, cook your pasta and then drain ready to serve
- Remove the sauce from the heat, fold your pasta through making sure its well coated and serve
Freezing
- Freeze in individual portions. To make things easier I always freeze this pasta sauce in small portions. So much easier to defrost what you need instead of wasting any. Freezer bags are fab and save space, I have some great silicone reusable ones
Video
Notes
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