Pesto pasta salad

Normally I find pasta salad the most appalling thing out there, ESPECIALLY when it has raisins. Here's a tasteful, easy pasta salad that's sure to impress!

Ingredients

• 100mL Classico basil pesto

• 500g tricolour fusilli (I used Catelli)

• 2 medium tomatoes

• lil bitta EVOO

Directions

1. Boil pasta according to package directions (add a bit of salt to the water to boil faster and add flavour).

2. While hot, drizzle with a little EVOO to prevent sticking and clumping (do this for any pasta you make!) Let cool to room temperature. You won't need a lot as the pesto already has lots of EVOO to preseve it.

3. Large dice tomatoes.

4. When pasta is cooled, add in pesto and toss until all (are they called noodles?) are completely coated.

5. Add in tomatoes and toss (not too much, you don't want them all to end up at the bottom of the pasta!)

6. Enjoy as is or let sit in the fridge to cool down more.

Leftover pasta? carbonara.

It always happens that you make too much sauce and not enough pasta, then you make more pasta only to have too much pasta, then more sauce and yeah it's an endless cycle - it's almost never a winning situation when you make pasta... almost. And guess what I'm still in quarantine so my kitchen lab is going strong :')

Ingredients

• A bowl of leftover pasta (I used around 1.5 loose cups of spaghetti)

• 1 clove finely chopped garlic (or just mince it or use paste)

• Turkey cold cut (if you wanna make the real deal use pancetta, I didn't have any)

• 1 egg

• Parmesan to your heart's delight (I used... well I'm not sure, it just tasted good)

• Salt to taste (my parm was salty already so I didn't add any)

• Black pepper. Freshly ground. Don't use anything else.

Directions

1. Whisk the egg in a small bowl with your parma john.

2. Mince that garlic.

3. If you're using pancetta, pan-fry it until golden brown. If you're using turkey like I did, you can lightly brown it at this point, but you don't need to.

4. Keep that flame on the lowest possible flame. Add a little oil and toss in the garlic. If you used pancetta, just use the residual fat already on the pan.

5. Toss in the pasta and heat well. I threw mine in the microwave for 30 seconds and then onto the pan to combine with the garlic.

6. Take off the heat and put into a bowl. pour the egg mixture over the hot pasta and toss gently. I PROMISE YOU WON'T GET SALMON VANILLA (read the tips section for some science about that)

7. Grind the pepper FRESHLY over the pasta. FRESH. PLEASE. (I did that after taking the picture lol)

8. Enjoy!

TIPS AS PROMISED

Ok if you're reading this part, you're probably concerned but it also means you still have faith in me even after telling you to pour raw egg on your pasta and eat it straight so thank you!!!! So science time - that pasta has to be nice and HOT for it to work. This cooks the eggs to a soft, silky, cheese-like consistency.

Only eat these burgers once in a while

Ready in 40 mins | makes 9 portions

I made these burgers flavourful, not healthy... after all I'm clearly not vegan 😜 These will clog your arteries. Work out for a whole day after eating these. You have been warned. Also, read through this whole thing before trying it out. Also I'm sorry about not posting even an attempted artsy pic, I forgot to take one, the burgers just smelled too good...

Ingredients

• 1 kg lean ground beef

• 1 cup of bacon, chopped (look for lower fat content packs)

• 2.5 tsp paprika

• 2 pinches oregano

• 4 cloves minced garlic

• 2 tsp hickory smoked salt (or regular salt works if you don't have that handy)

• 1 tsp ground mustard seeds

• 3 small onions finely diced

• 1/2 fresh lime juice

• some splashes woostershire sauce (however the heck you spell that)

• 2 large eggs

• 1.5 loose cups smoked cheese, sliced

• 9 toasted pretzel buns

• Butter

• Optional: pickles, green olives, condiments, extra sliced cheese etc...

Directions

1. Trim off any excess fat from the bacon, leave the inner fat intact. Chop as finely as possible.

2. In a large bowl, mix the beef and bacon with the spices and aromatics (the paprika, oregano, garlic, salt, mustard, onion, lime, woostershshshire, and egg.)

3. Roll into portions between 150-160g. Flatten as thin as possible, and evenly divide the cheese throughout all patties, placing in the center of each. Cover up the cheese by rolling the surrounding meat over it. Ensure that it's proeprly sealed in by pinching any areas to join the patty completely - you don't want any cheese melting out of the burger while cooking it! Freeze any excess portions immediately.

4. Preheat your grill to 450°F. I like to use grill mats (you can find them on Amazon or Ebay, they prevent food from getting stuck on the grill or grease falling through and making a burst of flames.)

5. Cut the pretzel buns in half.

6. Once hot, place the patties directly on the mats. Don't flip until the underside is properly browned - get those grill marks it just tastes a whole lot better, trust me - this takes about 2-3 mins. Oh and keep the bbq closed as much as possible, you don't want all the heat escaping - burger's gotta cook on the inside too.

7. Optional: if you really wanna clog your arteries, add extra sliced cheese on top of the burger now.

8. Once the flip side is browned and grilled like the top side, close the grill for 2 mins. Don't, AND I MEAN DO NOT use a meat thermometer - you'll pierce the burger you tried so hard to seal up and all the cheese will come oozing out and you don't want that! Just trust me with the timings - or if you're a bit more experienced, tap the burger in the center and edges with the tongs and make sure it's not so squishy like the raw beef, but it shouldn't be rock hard like a hockey puck.

9. When the 2 mins is up, take the burgers off and let them rest! Yes God gave us a rest, so rest must be important - in this case it's to lock the juices into the burger so it doesn't get all dry and gross.

10. Butter the cut side of the bun a little bit and place that side down straight on the mat. Toast until you get grill marks.

11. Serve looks by putting spinach on the bottom bun, then put the burger patty, then the top bun, and put the pickle and olive on a toothpick and put that on top of the burger. I personally don't like that, but it serves looks along with the flavour.

If you're making these from frozen leftover portions - thaw to room temperature and grill with the above instructions.

As you can see I didn't properly seal the burgers so cheese came out - it was a very sad sight. Also these are pictures my mom took, I was too hungry and ate the food, then I remembered oh shoot I didn't take a pic for the blog errrgggggg