Dinner for 3: Mother, American and Me

My friends like eating my food. My mother always insists that I cook. And I don't mind at all - I love to eat, and I love good food. If this means that I have to do the hard work, so be it. Just be sure to bring good wine :)

Tonight, the mothership is in town for work and would like to come for dinner. Like any good student, I sent her to Woolies with a list:

• Bacon (I like streaky bacon for this)
• (Plain) Cream cheese - you could use cottage cheese for a lighter version
• Red wine (I didn't specify, but hoping for a nice Merlot...)
• Fresh Parmesan
• Fresh basil

I already have fresh broccoli, tagliatelle pasta, wild rocket, blue cheese, cashew nuts, garlic, white (cooking) wine, an avo and an egg. Don't ask me about quantities - I just make it up as I go along. And don't plan on having leftovers for lunch; they rarely survive a dinner in my flat.

This sounds long-winded, but is actually really simple. It shouldn't take more than 40 minutes to prepare. Be generous with the ingredients - if you skimp on food, the meal is boring. If you skimp on wine, so is the conversation :P

Bacon and Broccoli Alfredo with Blue cheese and Roasted Cashew nut Salad

1. Turn the oven onto 180, put the cashews on a baking tray and put them into the oven once the light goes off. Take out and jiggle after 5 minutes. Take out and allow to cool after 10 minutes.
2. Finely chop/press about 3 cloves of garlic. Heat some olive oil in a frying pan, turn the heat down to mid-level and pop the garlic in. Saute gently until light gold.
3. Meanwhile, cut the package of bacon up into smallish squares. I use kitchen scissors, but if you have a good enough knife, go for that. Add the bacon to the pan. You shouldn't need any more oil - the bacon fat will soon melt. Keep the heat on medium.
4. Gently fry the bacon. I like my bacon really crispy. Charred, almost. When it's done take it off the heat and dump the contents of the frying pan onto some paper towel and pat to remove as much of the excess oil as possible.
5. In a separate pot, steam the brocolli. It should be firm, not mushy when done. If in doubt, undercook it.
6. Add a tablespoon of white wine to the cream cheese and mix it in. Then add the egg to this mixture. Whip it up with a fork until there are no lumps. Then add salt, pepper, paprika and finely shredded fresh basil. No lumps!
7. Cook the pasta. At the risk of stating the obvious, let the water boil on the stovetop and add some salt before adding the pasta. Al dente means 'tender yet firm' - pasta should always be al dente. Cook the pasta.
8. Drain the pasta once it is done and leave to cool for a few minutes. There is no need to toss it in olive oil.
9. Meanwhile make the salad: rinse and put the wild rocket in a bowl. Add cubes of avo. Distribute the roasted cashews over that. Crumble the blue cheese over. Dress in balsamic vinegar and olive oil.
10. Once the pasta has cooled to lukewarm, mix in the cream cheese concoction. It should coat the pasta without forming lumps (if it makes lumps then the pasta was still too hot - the egg is scrambling on it!)
11. Add the bacon and diced, steamed broccoli. Make sure that the stove plates and oven are turned off.
12. Mix well and serve with parmesan on the side and the salad. And the wine... Although if you're me, you've probably already drunk half of it.

Enjoy!