Jamie’s Tagliatelle with Spinach, Mascarpone and Parmesan

by Sabs

I’ve been trying so desperately to get cooking for one right. I think I may have gotten it spot on for once.

I have pathetic days when I’m too lazy to bring the pots and pans out to get to cooking my own meals. Those are days I order take out and eat while reading Jamie Oliver cookbooks so I don’t feel too bad about all the grease I’m stuffing into my body.

But the simplicity of Jamie’s Tagliatelle with Spinach, Mascarpone and Parmesan made me get up from my lazy ass to go and get some proper groceries and cook.

Jamie’s recipe serves four (super hungry) people. I did some mental math clever computations (yep, lazy) to get more or less how much I’d need for one meal.

Obviously, this isn’t tagliatelle, but spaghetti will do just fine. To yield about a cup of pasta (which is just right for me on a regular day), I got about that much dried spaghetti, as much as would fit in my hand when I clench my fist tightly. Boil the pasta in salted water. I’m a huge fan of one pot cooking (mostly because I have one stove and can therefore use one pot at a time anyway haha!). So I boiled the pasta in the pan I was gonna make my sauce on.

To go about it a little faster (my electric stove takes forever to heat up!), I boiled some water in an electric kettle (you can hold your breath and it will boil over before you pass out–amazing, genius piece of work, that electric kettle) and poured it onto the pan.

Once that’s done, strain the pasta and set aside some of the water from it. You’ll need it for later.

Jamie uses two pots, one for boiling the pasta and the other for making the sauce. That way, as soon as the pasta cooks, he tosses it right over to his sauce pan.

But I’ve got to cope. So my brother taught me this brilliant trick to keep the pasta from getting sticky and mushy after sitting out a while. Flash it with cold water a few seconds after draining. I can’t explain how that works, but in my head I just think the pasta gets confused and stays absolutely still and well behaved until you need it.

So when that’s done, you’ll need a teaspoon of butter (2 teaspoons in Jamie’s recipe, but if I go less than a teaspoon, that leaves nearly nothing at all). Melt the butter in a pan on medium heat. Toss a clove of crushed garlic too.

I took about a handful of Baguio spinach (couldn’t find the regular kind, but this one worked out pretty well).

Just about when the butter had completely melted, I tossed the spinach in and kept it there for about a minute or two, until they were dark and wilted. After which, season with salt and pepper and, if you have some on hand, about a pinch of nutmeg.

When that’s done, toss in 1/8 cup of heavy cream (I used regular cream, but I refrigerated it prior to make the consistency thicker) and 1/8 of Mascarpone. If your genius measuring cup, like mine, will only go as low as 1/4, so just feel your way through it. It needn’t be exact.

When that’s all melted, toss in the pasta and add a little of the pasta water you set aside to loosen up the sauce. Jamie says it shouldn’t be pasty, but silky. So keep adding pasta water as you see fit.

Top with some parmesan and you’re done! Cream-based pastas tend to overwhelm me, so I always keep a slice of lemon on the side for that little, refreshing ‘zing’.

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Recipe from Jamie’s Dinners by Jamie Oliver