Forum Thermomix
Welcoming Center, Management and General Chat => Recipe Book Recipe Reviews => Topic started by: judydawn on January 23, 2012, 09:47:52 am
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GD made this for us for lunch today and I put out the ingredients for the full quantity as I intended sending home a casserole dish for her family for their tea. I used ordinary spiral pasta not buckwheat and was surprised at how much pasta was called for. I went ahead and used the full amount and was very impressed with this way of cooking pasta - how easy is that to place the dry pasta in the thermosaver, cover it with boiling water and 15 minutes later you have it full of cooked pasta. There was so much pasta though that I held back 200g of it once cooked and GD spread the rest into 2 decent sized casserole dishes. I was a bit concerned that the sauce was not going to be liquidy enough for the amount of pasta. The only change I made to the sauce was to use a roasted red capsicum instead of a fresh one and I used Carnation Light & Creamy milk instead of cream but this shouldn't have made any difference to the sauce. The end result was a somewhat dry tasting pasta meal and GD who loves tuna, would not eat it. The flavours were there but it needed something to lift it so for tea I took out a pack of frozen cheese sauce and added 2 big spoonsful to each serving bowl before heating them in the microwave. What a transformation that was to the dish. I didn't send the other dishful home for their meal so will now freeze it as is and it will be a nice standby meal for unexpected visitors with the addition of a fresh batch of cheese sauce stirred through.
The picture is of the original meal without the cheese sauce addition.
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so don't cook as much pasta as the recipe says? what would you give it out of 5?
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The thermosaver was full to the top of cooked pasta CP. The recipe says serves 6 but to me it would be more like 8. There is not enough tuna sauce for the amount of pasta so I would definitely cut down on the pasta.
2/5 before adding my cheese sauce which takes it up to a 4/5 - big difference CP. With the cheese sauce I would serve it to anyone, without it we ate it under sufferance.
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Hi Judy, love the fact you are cooking up a storm from QFITT!
Regular wheat pasta swells a lot more than buckwheat pasta when cooked - therefore when substituting with regular pasta, I would recommend reducing it to maybe 250g of dry pasta. This amount will fit better with the amount of sauce!
Just wondering did you use tuna in oil or tuna in spring water? I use tuna in olive oil which would make the dish a lot moister than tuna in spring water.
Love the idea about the cheese sauce - what a fantastic addition! I can imagine a TM bechamel sauce being fantastic on the top.
Cheers,
Alyce
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Thanks for your comments Alyce - if we can discuss our different end products and why things turn out as they do, it does help tremendously. I guess when we use different ingredients things are not going to be the same but as long as we get there in the end and the meal is not wasted, no harm is done.
Never using buckwheat pasta before, I was unaware of the difference so that does explain there being far too much pasta so my mistake there.
I did use tuna in spring water as I don't generally use the oil variety so another mistake by me.
Thanks so much for clearing this up and with the reviews so readily available for people to check on before making any recipe, no-one should make the same mistake as I did.
Love your book and will be ordering one for DD for her birthday in May.
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This is another bowl of leftovers with the addition of some cheese sauce - delicious.
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What a lovely comment/approach Judy :) This forum provides such a great opportunity to discuss these things - it really is fantastic.
Again, I admire your ability to make any dish work for you! Nothing worse than wasting food, or eating out of sufferance. Love the cheese sauce idea! What doesnt taste great with cheese sauce :)
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Alyce I don't have your book yet (hopefully soon) but I do love the way you have got back to people here and the lovely positive way you have taken their comments re your recipes. Congratulations. :-*
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Thank you so much Cookie - I really appreciate the kind words :)
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Bit of an update for anyone wanting to use wheat pasta rather than buckwheat:
Made this recipe again last night using a 2.7L casserole dish and wheat pasta. Used 250g of wheat pasta and it made the perfect amount for the dish. The pasta cooked in 15 minutes in the food warmer, but this time may differ depending on the exact pasta used.
Alyce xo
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Thanks alyce, thats very handy, have put a note in my book :D
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Thanks Alyce, this information will be most useful for those wanting to use wheat pasta.
I'd like to add that I have cooked 16 of your recipes in 10 days and when I weighed in this morning, I was surprised to find I had lost 1 kg. I haven't been on a diet but have been weighing in more regularly this year and didn't realise I had been eating more healthily since using your cookbook. An added benefit on top of enjoying the lovely recipes.
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Wow Judy 16 recipes in 10 days, you (and CP) are really working your way through the book. Great effort!
Bonus on the weight loss :), I'm sure Alcye will be pleased to hear the added benefit of her book.
I going to have to try this, just for the novelty of letting the pasta cook itself in the Thermoserver, I never would have thought of that :)
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I was amazed at the result Katie, I thought it would just have softened but it was fully cooked (I don't know if buckwheat would have been but ordinary pasta certainly was). I will be using this method from now on in whilst a pasta sauce is cooking.
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I might get some buckwheat pasta and try both this and normal pasta (lucky I have 2 Thermoservers :))
How easy though!
That's way I love this forum and my TMX, so many new things to try :)
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How great to hear Judy!! Nothing better than accidental weight loss. Lovely to hear that the book has contributed to your health. :)
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Made this tonight with the buckwheat pasta. I found that there was a little too much pasta and sauce for my average size lasagne dish and I had to hold some back otherwise it would spill over in the oven - next time I will use my whopper. I have never tasted buckwheat pasta before and I must say I found the pasta a little "cardboardy", but mixed with the sauce and cheese it tended to hide that taste. Everyone really enjoyed the dish, and I will probably make this again with the wheat pasta to see what the difference is (although I know its not as healthy). Very flavoursome :D
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I made this tonight also, although i used wheat pasta (liked how easy to prepare in thermoserver) and substituted parsley for celery. I made individual serves. We all enjoyed it, i cooked 300g pasta and made 6 individual serves with some tuna mix left over. I think i will combine it all,inluding the cheese before i bake next time. There will be a next time.
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I made this last night and used normal pasta. I was a little concerned that it hadn't cooked completely when I put it in the oven but it completed cooking in there. I sort of made a half quantity as there's only 3 of us. I used tuna in olive oil and made the recipe exactly as per the book. I was a little unsure if I would like it but it was really tasty and lovely. In fact we all had seconds and there is still enough for lunch today.
My first recipe from your book Alyce and I loved it.
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I am going to try this, will be making it wednesday, I am allergic to fish & seafood so am going to substitue with chicken breast. I will be using regular pasta as I have some in the cupboard.
What an amazing way to cook pasta, I am assuming spagehtti would work as well. I love TM spahetti but its a long procees, this is so easy :)
Ds loves pasta bakes, so i will pre cook my chicken, i normally have some in the freezer but its finished. I will add the chicken just before baking.
I am wondering if I need to add some extra cheese sauce/cream or something as I wont be having any oil from the tuna.
Any suggestions?
H :)
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Yum! I think it will be great with the chicken, but you make a good point in that the mixture may need a little extra moisture. I haven't ever made it this way but I would suggest adding a little extra cream or simply a big splash of olive oil. The amount of cheese needed will depend on the size of the dish used - the larger the surface area the more cheese needed to cover it!
Looking forward to hearing how it goes!
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Hally, I tried cooking spaghetti this way but it didn't cook like the spiral pasta did which I thought was strange. Maybe it needed longer but I just threw the water and spaghetti into a saucepan and boiled it for 4 minutes.
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This has just come out of the oven. Good 6 serves
I used 550g of chicken breast instead of tuna. I pre cooked the breast in the oven
1 zuchini & 2 carrots
200mls of lite cream
pasta 250g
Pasta cooked perfectly in thermoserver. I couldn't believe my eyes :o :o
I have just had a small serve for lunch. was surprised how light it was, not a rich heavy sauce at all. Perfect for healthier option for a pasta bake, might have used a bit more cheese. Next time will mix a little cheese through as well. Sauce nice and moist, adding a little extra cream to compensate for the tuna oil worked well.
love this dish, wii make again. also a great dish to have in the freezer for days you are unable to cook.
Thanks Alyce :)
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I made this last night - I really liked it, so did the 6yo. Unfortunately the 8yo doesn't like tuna so she mainly ate the pasta - could have kicked myself for telling her it was tuna, she probably wouldn't have noticed otherwise! The only tweaking I did was using 250g of normal spiral pasta, and fresh corn instead of frozen peas as that's what I had in the fridge. A really tasty dish using basic pantry ingredients and whatever vegies you have in the fridge - love it!
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Could have told her the truth and said it was le thon ( ;) tuna in French) but not expand on that until she says she has a proper taste before deciding whether she likes it or not
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What a fantastic recipe everyone loved it I put bechamal sauce on top under the cheese this will be a regular on the menu thank you Alyce I.m loving your book I have made 3 meals so far this week from it
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I made this the other night just with 250g rigatoni. I threw in some sliced mushrooms as well and had to use chives instead of spring onions on the top. I couldn't believe how much it made...we easily got three meals out of it. The only things I found were that my two zucchini were really big so halving them was not enough to be chopped up by the TM. I had to remove and cut them into even smaller chunks before they were chopped properly. I also found that Reverse Speed 2 was not high enough to get everything going when cooking the tuna mix. I had to have the machine on 3 to get it going and then turned it down to around 2.5 once all of the ingredients were incorporated a bit. A great dish though & we'll definitely make it again.
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Another recipe to add to my list of things to make! I love the idea of using chicken Halex.
Has anyone tried this with salmon? (just because I know I have some of that in the cupboard, and don't have any tuna...one less thing to buy!?)
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I imagine it would be fine with salmon.
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I made a half serve of this recipe and used only 100g wheat spirals which was the perfect amount for the half serve. I was unsure whether the oil was supposed to be drained from the tuna or not (I did). DH really enjoyed it and found it loose enough (not dry). I didn't add any extra veg today did just as the recipe stated.
(http://i260.photobucket.com/albums/ii26/ragdoll128/Very%20New%20Savoury/IMG_9064_zpsqokvuldz.jpg) (http://s260.photobucket.com/user/ragdoll128/media/Very%20New%20Savoury/IMG_9064_zpsqokvuldz.jpg.html)
Individual serve
(http://i260.photobucket.com/albums/ii26/ragdoll128/Very%20New%20Savoury/IMG_9068_zpsdy7qrozv.jpg) (http://s260.photobucket.com/user/ragdoll128/media/Very%20New%20Savoury/IMG_9068_zpsdy7qrozv.jpg.html)