The Recipe Room

With a comforting richness, this soft cheese and celery pasta is really refreshing on a warm day, eaten in the shade with some chilled water or fruit juice on hand.

Although some may not consider cheese a “light” dish, I think it is quite healthy and a delicious source of calcium.

Simplicity itself, this is a good recipe when you’re short of time.

If you want to give the dish more kick, add a clove or two of garlic when you fry the shallots and celery. This dish is also nice with tinned tuna and mayonnaise instead of the soft cheese and yoghurt, although obviously the method will differ if you change the ingredients.

Ingredients:

• 1 tablespoon of olive oil
• 2 finely chopped shallots
• 75g soft cheese, such as Brie or Camembert
• 75g plain yoghurt
• 1 celery stick trimmed and finely sliced
• 150-200g penne or similar tubular pasta
• Small handful of finely chopped parsley
• Pinch of grated nutmeg
• Salt and pepper
• 1/2 a lime

Method:

1 – In a large pan, bring some lightly-salted water to the boil and cook the pasta until it’s al dente. If you’ve got the right pans, you can steam the chopped celery over the pasta for the first three or four minutes of its cooking time.

2 – While that lot is bubbling away, combine the soft cheese and yoghurt in a bowl, adding the grated nutmeg and some salt and pepper, set aside.

3 РAs the pasta nears completion, heat the oil in a heavy-bottomed frying pan, and saut̩ the celery, shallots and most of the chopped parsley, over a medium-low heat for about five minutes, until softened. By this time the pasta should be ready: drain the pasta and combine it with the vegetables.

4 – Remove the pan from the heat and add the cheese and yoghurt mixture, combining well. Return to a low heat and gently warm through for three to five minutes. Serve with a leafy Caesar salad, squeezing some lime juice and sprinkling the remaining parsley over the pasta, if desired.

Serves: 2

Time: 30 minutes: 10 minutes preparation, 20 minutes cooking.

Tags: Brie, Camembert, celery, Italian food, lime, nutmet, olive oil, parsley, penne, shallots, soft cheese and celery pasta, yoghurt

This entry was posted on Monday, 5 March, 2012 at 5:37 pm by Gianluca Dievole and is filed under Less than 1 hour, Main Courses, Meal for 2 people. You can follow any responses to this entry through the feed RSS 2.0. You can leave a comment, or make a trackback from your own blog.