Easter Sunday Dinner for 17...

Mum offered to help in the kitchen, but being the control freak that I am I opted to do it alone. Thankfully though, V realised before I what a massive undertaking this was and nominated herself for dishes duty - and whatta task!

Each of these pastas are pretty easy but are so distinct from one another that they complement the others quite well. Just tackling this post is making me feel all anxious and tired though.... it was pretty funny - I felt like a professional chef, thank god there was enough for seconds and everyone seemed really happy with the meal. It was so funny everyone rushing into the dining room to line up with bowl and fork in hand, someone calling out "we need more parmesan" and "who made this?". V and I standing back in awe!

Zucchini and Parmesan chilli linguine

2 large zucchini - sliced into 4mm slices length ways.
1 birds eye chilli
2 cloves garlic
handful chopped parsley
Grated parmesan
Salt and pepper to taste.

Saute zucchini over medium heat with garlic and chilli. Add parmesan and parsley and stir through pasta.

Meat lovers Linguini

This is great for holidays because you always have left over BBQ meat in the fridge, it's such an easy way to get rid of it. The trick is to let it simmer for a while so the meat gets all tender, the tomato sauce takes on the smoky flavour of the meat while still retaining the fresh sweet tang that only comes with good quality or fresh napoli sauce.

Tip: For this sort of napoli, I either deseed and blend fresh tomatoes, garlic and onion with a little veg stock to thin it out a bit, or blend garlic and onion with pureed tomatoes and a teaspoon of sugar)

Left over bbq'd sausages, cooked diced bacon and steak - roughly chopped into bite size pieces.
fresh/home made napoli pasta sauce

Saute garlic slightly before adding napoli sauce. Simmer meat in napoli sauce for 1/2 hour before stirring in linguine.

Prawn Linguini in a white wine reduction

750g green prawns, deshelled (with or without tails)
2 tbsp minced garlic
2 tomatoes - deseeded and chopped finely
2 big handfuls chopped parsley
2 cups reasonable quality white wine (sav blanc is good)
6 shallots - sliced
basil leaves

This is the more time consuming pasta but it's totally worth it.

Saute garlic, chilli and shallots for five minutes before adding enough white wine to cover onion mix. Turn heat down and simmer until white wine thickens slightly. Add a little wine at a time, adding seasoning to flavour. The sauce is intended to coat and flavour prawns and should be sweet rather than salty or sour (takes about 25 minutes to add white wine and cook out all the alcohol). When your happy with how the sauce tastes, raise heat and add prawns. Stir constantly making sure all prawns are cooked through - about three minutes, add parsley before stirring through linguini. Sprinkle with parmesan and basil.