I Need My Tea NOW!

Now, normally I like it when it rains, because it's good for my garden.  Yesterday, however, could only be described as DANK. 

Dark grey veils of cloud swathed a grey backdrop that didn't budge all day, and it rained incessantly.  By the end of the working day my mood matched the rain, and achy eyes, a stiff neck and a suspicious tickle in the back of my throat from cycling in the rain the other day didn't help matters.  Neither did the fact that we had to do the food shopping after work.  By the time we'd got home and unpacked the shopping I needed my tea and I needed it NOW.  I was also very sure, what with the dank wetness of the weather and having cycled to work for most of the week, that I needed something hot, substantial, comforting, and heavy on the carbohydrates.  It had to be pasta and sauce.

On the vast majority of occasions, I make my own pasta sauce (we have been known to make our own pasta too).  It's vastly cheaper, invariably nicer, hasn't been processed, and isn't too sweet and/or too salty (don't get me wrong, I love salt, but I'd rather ingest it in the form of hand picked sea-salt from the Guérande flavoured by Dad's home-grown  herbs than courtesy of a processed ready-meal).  However, on this particular occasion things would have got very nasty indeed had I not been fed within minutes of putting the last item of shopping away, so I while we were shopping I availed myself of some "fresh" pasta and own-brand bolognaise sauce.  However, when I got it home I did tweak it a bit to make it more appetising.

I set a large saucepan of water to boil for the pasta, laced with a sprinkling of the afore-mentioned salt and a few drops of olive oil.  While this was heating up, I melted some butter in a casserole dish - could have been a frying pan, my casserole dish was handy - and threw in two huge handfuls of spinach.  Its lovely green-ness cheered me up then and there, and even contemplating eating it made me feel healthier.

I stir-fried that for a couple of minutes until it had wilted down, then popped the sauce in to heat through while the pasta cooked.

Loads of black pepper to take away the sweetness of the bought tomato sauce and a spoonful of marscapone to give some depth, and it was almost as good as home-made.

Do excuse the slightly out of focus photo and the crumpled tablecloth - I was too hungry to spend much time on photography before diving in and, as you know, I am only an occasional housekeeper!