Re-Inventions of An Amateur Chef : Surf & Turf Pasta

Quick Lunch: Transforming Leftovers

"Re-invent" - to adapt into a different form; to give a new style or image to.

Live changes and everything in it as well, we can either grow with it - change for the better - or regress.  Reinvention takes place in many areas, sometimes forced and other times organically, whether it's in music, art or even food, a crisscross between two ideas seamlessly coming together as one.  Have you ever heard of the expression "One plus one equals three" ?  

Constant Change

About a year ago, I started this journey of sharing my "cooking" Revelations with the world, and it has open so many doors for me, doors I never knew were there in the first place.  It has brought so much change in my life, which I'm forever grateful for.  It has pushed me to constantly change the way I do things and how I approach new ideas, constantly reinventing old family recipes (sometimes burning my fingers in the process) and experiences, creating new memories or recreating old ones. 

Limited Time

Working in a retail pharmacy environment, time is of the essence, I'm constantly faced with long hours, short lunchtimes and a conundrum of what to quickly prepare in less than 1 hour.  When we cook the night before, we always make sure that we cook enough for lunchtime the next day.  If you ever manage to see me in lunch times, you will notice that I'm like a headless chicken, running around always trying to figure out what to make.

On our date night we had Steak and Calamari respectively and often bring leftovers home.  I had to come up with a scrumptious lunch for two, in less than an hour.  Ok. I'm running around in my head trying to figure out what we have at home and what I can do with this.  

The "one plus one equals three effect"

Combining two different meals, from the night before with my love of pasta, Lunchtime bliss was created.  Then it dawned on me, why not a Surf and Turf pasta? (Yeah I know some of you are rolling your eyes at the idea - get over it).

Surf & Turf Pasta

Serving  : 2

Prep &
Cooking : 15 minutes

Ingredients

• leftover Steak
• leftover Calamari strips
• 250g Spaghetti, Tagliatelle or any pasta (cooked Al Dente)
• Olive oil / unsalted Butter 
• a punnet Mushrooms
• 80g-100g Cherry/ Italian Tomatoes
• fresh Basil leaves (to taste)
• Mozzarella cheese (too much is never enough)
• Salt and Pepper to taste
• Italian Herbs

Method

• Cook pasta in a pot of boiling water, until Al Dente.

Next few steps can be done while the pasta is cooking, this is usually 15 minutes, depending on the type of pasta

• Chop steak into strips, and calamari into smaller strips.
• Dice mushrooms.
• In a frying heat oil / butter and add the mushrooms.
• Once mushrooms starts to brown add the steak and calamari and fry for about 2 minutes.
• Halve the tomatoes and add to pan and fry until just before the skin comes off, still firm. 
• Add salt, pepper and Italian herbs.
• Mix everything together and dish up, adding sliced pieces of mozzarella and cut basil leaves.  

Dèka

Enjoy 

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