A Very Simple Recipe

Hello! Welcome to my first 'lifestyle' post all about what I really really love - food! I love carbs, I love fish and I really love garlic so I decided to seek out a recipe online to find something that combined all three but I felt it needed sprucing up a bit as it just seemed a little boring, so I'm bringing you my vamped up version of this dish which is so simple, even Katy from The Rawrdrobe could cook it (probably!) And I also cooked some garlic bread so there's a quick how to on that!

Firstly, I advice prepping ingredients as once you've added everything, you're pretty much done! I don't measure out my ingredients so I will explain what you need throughout the recipe but you will need:

- Linguine

- Butter

- White Wine

- Garlic

- Parmasan

- Lemon Juice

- Sugar Snap Peas / French Beans

- Salt and Pepper

- Baguette 

First of all, if you're wanting some garlic bread, slice the bagette but not all the way through so that you can put butter, parsley and garlic into the gaps. I use about a clove and just spread as much butter as I need inbetween each piece and place in the oven at about 150 to melt the butter and soften the garlic!

I start by putting about a table spoon of butter into the pan - I know that sounds like a lot so if you would like you can change this amount but it is so that I don't have to use any type of oil in the dish as it will turn more creamy as it continues. Also remember to put on a pan of slightly salted water for your beans and pasta - you can use the same for both so you only need one!

I tend to start with about this much Parmesan but tend to add a little extra as I go through if it needs it. For garlic, I use 3 cloves and chop it up quite small.

Just before adding the Parmesan and garlic I add about half a centimeter of wine, enough to cover the bottom of the pan and a little extra for sauciness. I then add the garlic and leave to soften for about a minute before adding the Parmesan in and stiring to create a creamy sauce.

Here I add about a teaspoon of lemon juice. Have a taste, see if it's creamy and thick enough, whether it has enough wine or if it needs a little more lemon juice and add salt and pepper to your tastes. Taste again to make sure you are happy with the taste and consistency. I advise leaving it slightly thinner here as you're going to leave it to simmer for a while, you can taste later! Aaaand leave on a low heat to simmer!

 While you've left your sauce, place your beans into your pan of boiling water, turn the heat right down and leave for about 5 minutes. You want them to soften slightly so have a taste after 5 minutes and then remove them from the boiling water with a spoon and leave on a plate to cool. You can then use the same water for your pasta! Just turn up the heat and add enough for everyone. This should take about 10 minutes so gives you plenty of time to finish your sauce and lay the table!

Back to this pan, I have added a small amount of cream just to make sure the dish is slightly creamier but you could very easily leave this step out or use ricotta/cream cheese depending on your tastes. You really don't need to add much though, it doesn't add taste, just texture. Add your prawns to the sauce and turn up the heat! These should take four minutes so keep stirring and turning and then turn off the heat and add the beans!

Lay the table, remove your garlic bread from the oven and plate up! I've made this three or four times now and every time one of my parents says how good it tastes and even my brother loves it even though he isn't the biggest fan of prawns! I hope this is easy enough to understand and I have a few other recipes coming up which I love cooking at the moment! 

Let me know if you cook this, or are planning to! Do you have any recipes that you really enjoy cooking? I'm moving at the end of this week into mid-next week which may be very hectic and am also juggling mock exams but I will ensure there is always a blogpost every Saturday and Wednesday and you can also keep up to date with everything I'm doing on Twitter and Instagram!