Rules of the blog

So the idea came up in #paforums_pax to have a way for us to share our recipes, especially by those who want to learn to cook. I've set up this blog as a place for people to post and comment on recipes and will eventually (read that as when I f'in feel like it or someone else does the work :P ) be compiled into a cookbook for our community to buy.

To post please contact EruditeAphrodite with your email address and I will add you as a writer. If you can, post pictures with your recipes so people can see what the food looks like. A rating system (Casual, Easy, Normal, Hard, Super Foodie) was also mentioned to give people an idea of how difficult a recipe is.

Some final rules
- The title of your post should be the name of the dish
- Include tags for type of dish (soup, salad, main, etc) along with major ingredients
- If the recipe is something you have yoinked please include where it came from.

If you have any suggestions about running this (and especially if you'd like to help) PLEASE let me know. Eep is a very busy girl. :P

Monday, March 28, 2011

Simple pasta with balsamic vinegar

This dish is very much what you make of it - it can be as complex or simple as your mood and contents of your pantry. Here's the barebones version, add or remove components as you like. Don't skimp on the quality of the balsamic vinegar, there's reasonably good cheap stuff out there, and aged vinegars tasty enough to drink straight from the bottle. This is what makes it work.

Difficulty: Easy

Ingredients:

Pasta (fresh if you have it)

Sausage (optional)

Coarsely chopped onion

Chopped brown mushrooms

Red wine

Grated hard cheese (example: asiago, parmesan)

Aged balsamic vinegar

Olive oil

Sea salt

Black pepper

Butter (optional, but delicious!)


Start your water boiling in a pot with a dash of salt.

In a pan, add a mixture of olive oil and butter heating up. Add the chopped onions and mushrooms. Once the onions start to go soft, add the sausage and a bit of salt.

Add pasta to the water once it's boiling.

When the mushrooms have begun to brown, the onions have started going see-through, and the sausage looks ok, add a splash of decent red wine - enough to coat just the bottom of the pan. Continue heating the pan as the wine thickens a little, then remove heat and set aside.

Drain the pasta, toss it into a bowl. Add the onion/mushroom/sausage mixture and stir. Add 2tbsp balsamic vinegar and toss. (You may want to add a bit of olive oil if it's looking dry, the object here is to ensure the pasta is coated with delicious.) Season with salt and pepper until it is amazing. Done!

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