members recipes

this is a vegetarian dish best eaten with a couple of friends or family down on the couch watching the television or a good film. obviously you can do it with meat if you prefer gunge. I got the pasta recipe from Jamie\'s book \'ministry of food\' and added the sliced sausage. the pasta works really well cooked with bite \"al dente\" as it\'s dry and not swimming in the usual pasta sauce and it compliments the salad.The shape of the pasta picks up and holds the breadcrumbs.

Ingredients
pasta (either spirals or radiator type)
3 or 4 slices of left-over stale bread grated or whizzed into fine crumbs.
1 or 2 vegetarian quorn-type sausages sliced diagonal-wise into strips,nice if they are spicy too!
garlic- chopped
fresh thyme or dried
olive oil
finely chopped red chilli (optional)

for the salad:
a handful of trimmed green beans,
iceberg lettuce
cucumber,
1 or 2 tomatoes,
one small carrot grated,
a creamy bottled dressing such as caesar dressing made with parmesan.
paprika.

Method
to prepare the salad: as this is a one-fork meal so dice the cucumber and tomato, tear up or shred some of the lettuce leaves,grate the carrot.
also, slice the vegetarian sausage into diagonal strips and
cut the green beans into two and you are ready to cook.

for the pasta:
1.Grate the bread using a fine grater or whizz it in a processor.
2. Bring a pan of lightly salted water to the boil and add a large handful of pasta for each person. set the timer for half the recommended pasta cooking time.
3. start steaming the green beans over the pan of pasta in a metal colander placed under the saucepan lid or use a steamer.
3.fry the sausage slices in a little olive oil in a frying pan till they look nicely cooked.remove to a plate.

4. check the green beans aren\'t getting overdone but also it shouldn\'t \'squeak\' in your teeth when you bite one.
5. If the beans are done remove them and blanch them in cold water and then drain.
6. when the pasta is half cooked reset the timer to continue cooking the pasta. Now we can start the cooking in the frying pan while the pasta continues.

7. now medium heat a glug of oil in the frying pan and fry the garlic for a minute or two (here you can add the chopped chilli and fresh thyme)
8. add all the breadcrumbs and move it around to absorb all the garlic and oil so to cook evenly for a couple of minutes.
9. return the cooked sausage strips to the pan and move it around to cook.
10. when the pasta is done turn off the timer, quickly drain the pasta and add it to the ingredients in the frying pan.

11. give it all a little move around - it\'s quite dry so be careful not to damage the texture of the pasta too much.
12. serve into shallow bowls piling the salad next to the pasta starting with the lettuce,tomatoes,cucumber and green beans,grated carrot.(add a little grated cheese- optional)
13.generously drizzle the salad with the bottled dressing and add a tiny sprinkle of paprika as colour and heat.
14. now slouch on the couch with the bowl on your lap and eat ;)
keith