Spaghetti a la Marmite

Reading Nigella's interview regarding food heroes in this month's Observer Monthly where she lauded Anna Del Conte, I came across the most appealing recipe. A recipe which, in fact, which is made for me. Easy peasy and as easy as ramen, it is touted as a children's recipe. Spaghetti with Marmite!

The recipe is posted verbatim here:

350-380g dried spaghetti
50g unsalted butter
1 tsp Marmite
freshly grated parmesan cheese, for serving

Cook the spaghetti in plenty of boiling salted water. While the pasta is cooking, melt the butter in a small saucepan and add the Marmite and 1 tablespoon of the pasta water. Mix thoroughly to dissolve, then pour over the drained spaghetti. Serve with plenty of grated parmesan cheese.

So of course I made it the first chance I got but being me and therefore lazy, I omitted the bit where the butter and Marmite is melted together, instead, I bunged it all together after draining the pasta in a hot pan and generously sprinkled cheese all over as well as white pepper. Delish and the ultimate in comfort food.

About the Marmite I used... I had an unopened jar of Guiness Marmite which Umami had kindly given me ages and ages ago. Although it had clearly passed its best before, being unopened, I have no qualms eating it. Its so salty that I would highly doubt something bad had happened to it. Not that I advise other people to do the same but I'm familiar with my tummy (too familiar...) to know what abuse it can take. Now to sit back, relax, eat my Marmite Spag and wait for the cries of EWWWW to pour in...

Fool proof pasta?

A kind friend sent me an Imperia pasta machine for my birthday.

If ever I find the time, I'd love to try it out.

Anyone have a fool-proof recipe and method for me to try out?

I have a bolognese sauce Susan sent me, just need the pasta.

It really needs to be fool-proof as I'm the biggest fool I know.

Birthday Cake

Birthdays should always be celebrated by cake. Something about a birthday with no cake strikes me as a bit sad. Whether it is some store bought thing stuffed full of faux ingredients and sugar or something a bit more refined and decadent, a birthday just isn't a birthday without a cake to cut.

So, having missed out last year, I needed to get one this year and so I thought I would bake one myself.

I know.

Yes, I KNOW!!!

My experiences with baking have been.... challenging to say the (very) least.

But I had no choice. It was either buying one for myself or baking one and I thought baking one sounded a bit less sad!

Chocolate cake being my favorite, I thought I'd try the Black Magic Cake.

So while the babe was having her nap, I got the ingredients out and had the dry ingredients all mixed when she woke up with a vengeance. Crying babe in arm, I quickly threw in the wet ingredients and turned on the mixer much to her distress. I couldn't stop, my chocolate cake was at stake! I undermixed it but had to stop before the wee one went into turbo mode. Slopped the results into two pans and baked for requisite time.

Out came these slightly unevenly lumped cakes.


I debated for the rest of the afternoon regarding how exactly to put the cake together. Was it to be store bought icing or was I going to actually attempt to make some kind of frosting? I wasn't sure due to the whiny nature of the babe.

Finally I found a recipe for which I had all of the ingredients at hand, this chocolate buttercream frosting. So to more tears and screams, I whipped it up. Sadly, I was a bit too free handed with the milk so it was a bit.... melty.

Put together, it looked like... well to be frank, it looked like a big turd.

Thankfully it tasted ok if a bit too moist but then again, I never believe fudginess to be a bad thing.

The stars must have been all aligned beautifully so my turd cake would turn out edible.

I hate it when...

... you order a burger and pay extra for mushrooms but when your burger comes, there's just one sad little mushroom sitting in the middle.

I'm looking at you, Giraffe.

But then I got to thinking, would it have been less insulting if they had sliced up the mushroom and spread it around a bit, making me think I had gotten more than one mushroom?

All I know is I'm not paying for mushrooms anymore.

Credit where credit is due, when I complained, the waitress promptly took it to the kitchen where there was a small row but she returned triumphantly with three mushrooms.