The Corkless Mind

Category: Pasta

  • Honey and Mustard Pork meatballs with pumpkin tagliatelle.

    Honey and Mustard Pork meatballs with pumpkin tagliatelle.

    The pairing of pork with flavours like honey, mustard and sage not only enhance the natural sweet flavour of pork but celebrate its umami undertones. This week’s midweek meal is a budget buster, super easy to make and best of all it takes only 20 minutes to magically whip up!
    Like many others, I constantly find myself stuck in a rut when it comes to weekly meals and making the same things for convenience sake. Each week, usually as a mid week meal, I make pork and sage bangers, using one of my jars I recycle to use as salad dressing jars(a tip I picked up from Siba from Siba’s Table) I mix some honey, mustard, olive oil and a squeeze of lemon juice and give it a vigorous shake to combine I then proceed to drizzle over the bangers then roast in the oven for 20 minutes to achieve a crisp and golden brown banger. The perfect accompaniment for me is runny polenta studded with butter of course, placing the bangers on top of the polenta and using the pan juices to dress the dish. This for me, is the ultimate comfort food dish.


    So in rebellion of boring mid-week meals and costly healthy food, I’ve decided to pimp up the usual pork bangers and give it a lighter more fitting facelift for end of summer days.
    Honey and Mustard Pork Meatballs with Pumpkin Tagliatelle with crispy sage. 
    Ingredients:

    -350g pack of Pork bangers

    -2 Tablespoons of honey

    -2 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil

    -1 tablespoon of whole grain mustard

    -1 pack of pumpkin tagliatelle(or any spiralized veg for that matter)

    -a few sprigs of sage

    -a knob of butter or tablespoon of coconut oil

    -1 tablespoon of coconut oil to flash fry the pumpkin tagliatelle.
    Method:

    Preheat oven to 180 degrees C. Remove the meat from the bangers roll into balls and place in a oven tray/dish. In a jar or bowl, add the honey, mustard, olive oil and lemon juice mix or shake until incorporated. Place the pork meatballs in the tray and pour over the honey and mustard glaze and roast for 20 minutes until golden brown. In a pan, flash fry the pumpkin tagliatelle in the coconut oil for 1 minute on high, place in a separate bowl and set aside to serve with the meatballs. Using the same pan, add the knob of butter or more coconut oil and fry the sage leaves until crispy. Take off the heat and set aside. On a plate, place the pumpkin tagliatelle (I sprinkled a little dukkah and chilli flakes over the veg pasta) place the meatballs on top with the crispy sage leaves using the leftover pan juices drizzle over the dish and serve with grated Parmesan.

  • Confit Duck Ravioli


    French, Italian, and of course South African are my absolute favourite types of cuisine that I love to cook,eat and enjoy! My name and love of food has a French origin, my soul Italian and my heart definitely belongs to my beloved home country. I feel like I must have been a nonna in my previous life, I simply adore making pasta, so much so that I make a batch once a week usually accompanied with pork mince and chicken liver meat balls (a favourite in my household) or a simple quick meal with sautéed mushrooms, garlic and cream with tagliatelle. This week I wanted to do something different and venture into uncharted territory and what better way to confit the duck legs for the very first time and make ravioli too! I made the pasta dough and chilled in the fridge to keep till I need to roll out and shape. For the duck legs, I removed from the packaging and pat dry to season with sea salt flakes and sprigs of thyme. Melt 600g of butter (I used half butter and half duck fat) pour over the duck legs and place in a 160 degree C preheated oven for 2 hours. Once the duck has finished cooking, shred the meat and using a ravioli round cutter or if you don’t have one like me you can use a round cookie cutter place the meat in the middle of the circles(I added a few chunks of goat’s cheese to some of the ravioli before closing, brush the edges of all circles with eggwash(this acts as a glue to help the ravioli stick together and not leak filling whilst being boiled) place in salted water with a a few glugs of olive oil and bring to a boil. Place ravioli in the boiling water and cook for 2-3 minutes until the ravioli starts to float. Drain on a paper towel and serve with extra virgin olive oil. The recipe for the confit duck itself I borrowed from Woolworths Taste, the rest I improvised and used my own discretion. 
    For this post I shredded only what I needed for those ravioli and served the rest of the duck legs on polenta, because it was my first time eating confit duck I wanted to get the full experience. As life changing the meal was, I feel I need a good run for every glorious morsel consumed. But no regrets here! I will definitely be making this for guests soon. Over the weekend, I went and snatched up some bargains at the Weylandts sale for my props and am I glad I went! The plate and kitchen towel in the photos above are just some of a few beautiful items I bought there. Keep an eye out for some new props popping up in my up and coming photos. 

    The photos were taken just before 17:00pm, I know it was a bit late, but notice how it’s stays lighter for longer in the evenings, a sign Spring is almost upon us! 

    “Everything in moderation…including moderation” – Julia Child.