Macaroni Peas

Well, I've had quite a gap in my postings! Life has been hectic & busy, but it's now the Easter holidays & 2 out of 3 children have gone away on trips. Time for me to catch up on my poor abandoned blog!

First up, I treated myself to the Riverside Cottage Veg Everyday cookbook, to try & encourage us to eat more vegetables. It's a brilliant book! I looked for an easy recipe to start with, but also one that I thought the children would enjoy. I came across this recipe for Macaroni Peas, which looked ideal. Even my vggie-loathing daughter ate this! My 4 year old son has named it Alien Pasta :) Its such a simple recipe really, that I think I will let my 11 year old make this for us next time. If you really do want some meat with your dinner, bacon or pancetta would go nicely in this dish.


500g of frozen petit pois (4 cups)
500g of dry macaroni (2 cups)
50g of butter ( 4 Tbs)
1 garlic clove, peeled and minced
25g of Parmesan cheese, coarsely grated (1/2 cup) plus more for serving
fine sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
chopped fresh flat leaf parsley to serve

Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to the boil. Add the pasta and cook according to the package directions while you make the sauce.

Heat the butter in a small pan. Add the garlic and cook gently for a few minutes without colouring.

Put the peas in a separate pan, cover with water, bring to the boil and simmer until just tender. This should only take a couple of minutes. Drain, reserving the cooking liquid. Put half of the peas into a blender along with 6 Tbs of the cooking water, and the melted butter and garlic. Add the cheese. Blitz until you have a smooth and loose puree, adding a bit more of the pea cooking water if needed. Combine with the whole peas and season to taste with salt and pepper.

Drain the pasta as soon as it is ready and toss immediately with the hot pea sauce. Serve topped with a hearty grinding of black pepper, some more grated Parmesan and a garnish of chopped flat leaf parsley.