Living alone gets you out of the habit of cooking for other people. (It also means that on a really bad day, dinner can be ice cream and a glass of wine and no one can call you on it!). The food in my house is tailored entirely around my needs and wants and cooking for more than one person is a bit more of a ‘big deal’ that it used to be when I shared my space. Then it seemed to be easy to cook for more than one, now it seems like a big deal to have someone come around for dinner or lunch.
I think it’s more about attitude, having people over to eat has become more of a big deal because everyone I know has reached the stage where it takes a while to co-ordinate diaries, no-one just pops in any more and gets asked to stay for dinner. Or it could be that I’ve become really anti-social!
Whatever the reason, while cooking enough food is never a problem, I normally cook enough for dinner and lunch the next day, what to cook is. Do I go vegetarian as I would normally mid week, will my guests like that spinach and chickpea thing that I love to eat, do I need to make company food or the food I normally eat? This is a sort of answer to that. Michael popped round to return some things I’d left with the godchildren and I was making this. There was enough for two and he stayed to help me eat it. When it comes to cooking for others, like most good things in life, it’s probably best not to worry about it too much!
What
Olive Oil
2 sausages
2 small red onions
a tin of chopped tomatoes
120ml of red wine
1 tablespoon of balsamic vinegar
enough pasta for two people (for me that’s about three or four handfuls!)
How
While you are cooking the sauce you also need to be cooking the pasta.
Heat the oil in a pan and skin the sausages. Add the sausagemeat to the pan and start to brown after 2-3 minutes, add the sliced onions and cook until, the onions are soft.
Add tomatoes, wine and vinegar and reduce heat. Simmer until the sauce has cooked right down and then add the cooked drained pasta.
Eat with a glass of red wine!
Nic Dempsey 