Wednesday 12 March 2014

Making pasta, the McGingersnap way

Usually, it is Mrs McGingersnap who makes the meals in our household. Last night, however, she was very tired and I was very hungry, so I offered to do the honours. Simply follow the step-by-step instructions below to obtain the same results I did.
  1. Take one pack of pre-filled cappelletti.
  2. Take one jar of pre-prepared tomato and chilli pasta sauce.
  3. Fill a large pan with water and put on the hob to boil.
  4. Decide, three minutes later, that the water is taking too long to boil and move the pan to a more powerful hob ring. Slightly singe eyebrows in the process.
  5. When water is finally boiling, empty pack of cappelletti into the pan.
  6. Let cappelletti cook for 3-5 minutes. Don't time this: just sort of guess.
  7. Move pan from hob to sink and drain cappelletti through a colander. Make sure the colander slips so that half the cappelletti end up in the washing-up bowl.
  8. Swear a bit. 
  9. Decide, after careful consideration, not to use dirty sieve to rescue cappelletti from the dishwater.
  10. Pour cappelletti from the colander back into the pan and replace pan on the hob.
  11. Add half  a jar of sauce.
  12. Stir in the sauce over a medium heat until the sauce looks like it might be vaguely warm.
  13. Serve.
  14. Eat one cappelletto. Tell yourself it is not underdone, it is al dente. Tastes a bit weird though. And it's lukewarm.
  15. Heat in microwave for approximately 1 minute.
  16. Eat more cappelletti. 
  17. No, this really does taste weird.
  18. Go to kitchen. Note that the jar of tomato and chilli sauce remains intact and that what you have opened (and added to the pasta) is, in fact, the jar of pre-prepared sweet and sour sauce that was also out on the counter.
  19. Apologise to partner.
  20. Feel like a failure.
  21. Eat the cappelletti anyway.