Saturday night spaghetti

Discovered some rather tasty looking chorizo whilst perusing my parents’ fridge. My first opinion of paella was rejected due to laziness - spending Saturday night home alone may be one thing, but spending the majority of the evening standing over a stove stirring rice would just be a step too far.

So instead I opted for a quick spaghetti concoction, using an assortment of antipasti salvaged from the depths of the icebox - salty olives, sweet cherry tomatoes, and my favourite treat, semi-dried tomatoes dripping with olive oil. A combination of balsamic vinegar, rose wine and honey (scattered with thyme and smoked paprika) produced a pretty decent full-bodied Italian sauce. When the crucial moment came of pulling the dish together, I decided to test out some advice by spaghetti specialist Jamie Oliver and use a pair of tongs to lift the pasta out of the boiling pan and stir it into the sauce mix. The theory is that this helps the pasta to retain some of its cooking liquor and gives the sauce a glossier varnish overall, and it certainly holds up in practice, if my experiment is anything to go by. And what’s more, it stops that frustrating worm-like habit that spaghetti has of wiggling out of the colander and straight down the sink before you get the chance to gobble it up.