In an epically successful effort to procrastinate in sorting through all of my mothers belongings, I was overwhelmed with that unbeatable craving for authentic Italian food. Comfort food. And of course, a little bit of merlot... ok quite a bit of merlot, but ssssshhh. Who's counting?
Seriously though, to give you a little background, my mom is here from the UK, temporarily, to pack up her SA home into storage. Of course the storage container is very limited, so a huge amount of stuff has come to us, and quite honestly I dont know what to do with all the half used jars of aqueas cream, newspaper clippings, and medical supplies, including an EKG monitor and a nebuliser, school reports, knitting needles and god only knows what else. This is what our lounge looks like right now.
You want a glass of wine too now, don't you? 🤣
Anyway. 
So, back to the important stuff:
Classic Aflreddo with a twist and a hack:
500g pasta (preferably tagliatelle, fettuccini or Penne: I used spaghetti because that's what was in the cupboard and it was still fabulous)
400g gammon chops
250g chopped mushrooms
4/5 tablespoons of crack (garlic, herbs and chili infused with olive oil, see recipe here:Claire's Crazy Cakes, Bakes and Kitchen Hacks: Chapter 10 - Homecooking with Crack
2 large green peppers
2 large onions
4-6 tablespoons of olive oil
salt
1 packet white onion soup (chicken soup and/or mushroom soup are also fine)
500ml full cream milk (you really should use cream but you can hack it)
100ml wine
100g grated cheddar for garnishing (yes, I would have used parmesan if I had any or could afford it 🤣)
big beautiful basil leaves for garnishing
Method:
Dice green peppers and onions and sauté with crack.
Dice gammon and add to onion and greenpepper.
Sauté till golden then add wine and mushrooms.
Simmer on low heat for 10 min until wine has evaporated.
Add soupy milk mix (your packet soup mixed with 500ml milk)
Simmer on low heat for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally to avoid clumps of soup forming on the bottom of the pan and then SWITCH OFF the pan till later.
Pasta: you should do this step as late as possible to attain the perfect al dente pasta texture, which means its cooked but still firm and definitely not squishy. My favorite technique to test if pasta is cooked is to throw a piece onto the kitchen wall. If is sticks, it's ready! Always ALWAYS use rapidly boiling water and be ready to serve as soon as possible.
Add at least two table spoons of olive oil and a pinch of salt to the water before you add the pasta. It takes roughly 8-10 minutes for your pasta to cook. Stir once at the beginning to ensure your pasta gets a coating of the oil as this prevents sticking. Then stir one more time at the 5 minute mark. Don't fuss or over stir. Stir again right at the end and then tip over into a pasta strainer.
Turn your frying pan back onto a medium to high heat and give that sauce a good whirl.
I like to throw my pasta and sauce together and mix because otherwise my kids will eat all the sauce and leave the pasta (which is sacrilege) but traditionally you should plate the pasta and then top with your pasta sauce.
Garnish with grated cheese and fresh basil and buon appetito!!
gratuitous basil photos:
