London Lemon Linguini... Uh I mean Farfalle. With Lamb Chops.

"So wheres the Linguine?"

Having just met Anna while couchsurfing at her place in London i was unsure if she was controlling her rage or laughter. But my first Flogging certainly wasn't off to a good start.  Nor was my pasta, considering my good friend Gareth and I had just purchased all the Ingredients except the pasta. But we'll get to the delicious replacement later. If you're confused about what Flogging is you can see Gareth describe what it is on my YouTube channel here in a day or two.

Now I am a massive fan of Jamie Oliver, from his amazing advocacy on obesity to his delicious recipes and this recipe is based on his Lemon Linguine with a few changes, such as using normal lemons rather than Sicilian lemons which definitely lived down to my expectations. However we used awesome colourful artisan Italian pasta to make up for this and make up for it, it did! The other inspiring ingredients you will need are extra virgin olive oil, delicious grated Parmesan cheese, fresh basil, garlic, sea salt and black pepper. You can find the shortened recipe for the pasta at the bottom of this post.

For the chops all you will need is your seasoning of choice and some love (awww).

Thanks again to Gareth and Ana for their help and the use of their lovely kitchen.

Man it's good to be out of hostel kitchens. Lets get cooking shall we? To start off place the amazing Italian dried artisan Farfalle (or just normal Bow pasta) into some boiling lightly sea salted water and cook as directed.

Look at those amazing colours. I'm a sucker for amazing colours.

And shiny things.

While this is bubbling away juice and zest your lemons. Chop the zest up super fine. The finer the better. Then dump in the juice.

 

Thats Ana's hands there. She did some amateur hand modelling early in life and it's certainly paid off. Ana's Tip: if you don't have a juicer catch the seeds in your hand. Better than fishing them out with you're fingers or a spoon.

Now saute three or four cloves of finely chopped garlic for about a minute, in two tablespoons of olive oil. Then add the mixture and four more tablespoons of very out of focus olive oil to the lemon and juice mix.

I think my new camera had a hard time adjusting on this one. Or the new photographer. Might have to learn how to use that one day. (foreshadow, post about digital SLR cameras next week!)

Give the entire mixture a good whisk and set aside while we wait for the pasta to finish. 

...and get started on the chops! Now I almost always do not eat meat so most of my Flogging will be of a vegetarian nature but with the terrifying carnivore Gareth in the house this was kind of unavoidable.

Just don't look him in the eyes.

Cook your cutlets for four minutes in shallow oil flipping every now and again. You should probably season them beforehand but if you're anything like me cooking is more an adventure where you whimsically add things halfway through. Like cajun seasoning for chicken.

And those things in the back there are a few basil leaves to give it some flavour. Man i love fresh basil. Its a shame my parents and I seem to murder every basil plant that comes our way. We blame it on the Australian climate. And the lack of classical music in our backyard.

Anyway. Just let those juices sizzle.

 

...and sizzle some more.

 

 Before serving it up on a plate and handing it to Ana so you can get on with that delicious pasta.

 

 

 

Ana is a serious multitasker. So much so that at this point we had been so time efficient the pasta hadn't finished and she could serve up some brownies Gareth had whipped up the night before with some amazing Baileys spiked cream to the exhausted housemate returning from work. A teaspoon of Baileys does wonders for fresh cream. Try it. I dare you.

And I had time to pop out and laugh at Gareth's super entertaining YouTube video. Prize if you can guess what it is...

...before realising we hadn't even grated the Parmesan yet and the Pasta was pretty much done.

Mmm delicious, delicious Parmesan. About 150g should do it. Mostly because you ate the other 50g. But as I always say the more the better where cheese is concerned. 

Stir it into the oil, lemon garlic mixture and once you've strained the pasta, pour over the top and shake to coat ever piece. If you're forgetful like I am then sprinkle the rest of the Parmesan you left on the board and subsequently didn't add to the lemon mixture over the top.

Yeaaaaah.

Yeeaaaaaaaaahh!

Stir in a handful of chopped fresh basil and she's all done! The Parmesan melts and goes all goopy around the pasta which is absolutely delicious and the basil adds that something extra once again. It was a challenge to get this to the table but I insisted for photography's sake. 

And as the blurry photobomber in the corner of that photo obviously is saying is (once you've served yourself a seriously disproportionate amount of pasta) share it! Share it with Jason that fuzzy (intentionally this time) guy behind the table decorations.

Or, uh we'll just call her Vanessa... the photobomber!

And of course your best mate Gareth the carnivore and his kookaburra mug.

Once sufficiently stuffed with your new favourite pasta recipe enjoy a bit of competitive monopoly revolution with the wonderful people who are putting you up for the night in London.

If you want to mix it up a bit you can scrunch a big handful of rocket over the top for maximum taste. Or use the same sauce in a potato bake, which we actually did.

Above all enjoy!

Kudos Muchachos!

Here's the shortened recipe for the pasta.

Lemon Farfalle (4 servings)

 

500g Farfalle pasta

Juice of 3 lemons and zest of 1 finely chopped

6 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

4 Cloves of garlic peeled and finely chopped

150g Parmesan cheese, grated
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
a large bunch of finely chopped fresh basil

Cook the Farfalle in a generous amount of boiling, sea salted water following directions on the pack and drain. Meanwhile saute the chopped garlic in 2 tbs olive oil for 1 minute and let it cool a little. Add it to the lemon juice, the very finely chopped lemon zest and remaining olive oil and beat. Stir in the parmesan and immediately pour over the strained pasta shaking the saucepan to coat each piece with the sauce. Finish by stirring in the chopped basil.

This recipe was based on Jamie Oliver's recipe you can find here.