Apologies to Marcel Pagnol for my corruption of his beautiful title!
After last week's quick meals, I found I had some tubs of sauce languishing in the fridge or freezer: half a tub of carbonara, half a jar of tomato sauce, some watercress sauce and some frozen chicken korma.
This must be a common dilemma- what to do with these half-jars or tubs? Obviously you could do the same meals again- spaghetti carbonara, pasta with meatballs and tomato sauce, chicken curry and salmon with watercress sauce. Nothing wrong with any of that.
But I thought it might be fun to come up with some inventive uses for these ready sauces. (Within reason of course- I'm not suggesting painting a canvas with them or making a hat.)
I know the watercress sauce goes well in a fish pie: prawns,salmon and white fish mixed in with the sauce, topped with mash and sprinkled with cheese and breadcrumbs. Simple!
It also goes well, mixed with some cream, 3 eggs and some extra chopped watercress or spinach and poured into a pastry shell for a lovely quiche. (Baked at 180 degrees until risen)With the tomato sauce, I first made a fennel ragout. Soften some garlic and onion in a little olive oil and add 2 bulbs of sliced fennel. Pour over a glass of red vermouth (to give it a nice, herby scent) and bring to the boil. Add the leftover tomato sauce and some seasoning to taste. Leave to simmer until the sauce has reduced to a thick consistency and the fennel is tender. We had this first with fish and then again with chicken- it was so popular with the family!
I also experimented with a Bloody Mary sorbet. 1/2 a jar of tomato pasta sauce, Worcestershire sauce and vodka- with a hint of chilli too. Make the sauce up to 500 ml with some water and a couple of tsp of vodka. Add plenty of Worcestershire sauce and 2 tsp of chilli jelly or sauce. Churn in an ice cream maker for 20 minutes or so until spoonable. Freeze in a shallow container.
Interesting. And really delicious. You can serve it on its own, garnished with a Parmesan or Gruyere crisp- or as part of a another dish. Here I made it part of a Prawn cocktail: a layer of shredded lettuce, a layer of sorbet, cucumber, some prawns and some Marie Rose sauce.
To make Parmesan crisps is incredibly easy- grate some Parmesan finely, line a baking tray with greaseproof paper, put heaped tablespoons of cheese onto the paper and press down a little with your fingers to make rounds, bake at 200 degrees for 5 minutes. That's all there is to it!
It seems obvious to use leftover creamy pasta sauce with more pasta- but I wanted to do something different.
So then I wondered about making a risotto: with bacon and leek. Fry the leek and bacon in some olive oil, mix in a cup of arborio rice grains and stir until well coated with oil. Add a glass of white wine and stir until absorbed. Gradually add 1/2 litre of hot chicken stock (or more or less depending on how it is absorbed) and keep stirring until it is all absorbed and the risotto is creamy-looking without being too wet. Mix in the sauce, heat through, and serve with some Parmesan grated over the top
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This was lovely! The extra sauce added at the end gave the risotto a lovely creamy consistency - as it should be- but somehow more savoury and delicious than if I had just added cream. I'm going to make this again- and adding extra creamy sauce will be an integral part of all my risotto recipes from now on.
So there we are- simple stuff made from jars from the fridge- and not a penny wasted!
Cesar and Uggolin would approve!
Packed full of great ideas, as usual. You've seen how many jars I have hanging around in the fridge..! Definitely going to have a go at a couple of these.
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