Cupboard Pasta with Chilli sauce

One of the easiest dishes to make is tomato pasta. Just boil pasta, heat chopped tomatoes, and add whatever you want to add. So it's also one of the easiest meals to expand on. I usually chuck in some trimmed bacon, garlic and herbs, but a few days ago I decided to try something different from my usual as I had noticed some new spices in the cupboard. My friend the day before had shown me how to cook chilli con carne, so I blended the two. I wasn't too sure how well it would come out, but it tasted good, so if you fancy something different here's the recipe.

Ingredients:

• Pasta, any sort, and as much as you like (i don't tend to measure)
• Tin of Chopped tomatoes.
• As many Mushrooms as you like, chopped.
• Paprika.
• Cumin.
• 2 cloves of Garlic, crushed or chopped as small as possible.
• Beans (as you can see i used baked beans, I just washed the sauce away).
• Salt, pepper.
• Lea and Perrins
• Tsp of olive oil.

Excuse dirty oven...

Steps:

1. Boil the kettle, pour the water over the pasta, and set on the back burner to boil for as long as it says it takes
2. Heat the chopped tomatoes in a saucepan and add the Lea and Perrins, cumin and paprika. (You could really add any spices you like, for instance chili is usually used, but I didn't have any)
3. Grab a frying pan and add a tsp of oil, and start to fry the mushrooms
4. If you only have baked beans like me, then pour them into a sieve over the sink and wash the sauce away, then put into the saucepan with the sauce.
5. When the mushrooms are done put the garlic into the frying pan with the mushrooms, and after a few seconds put into the saucepan with the sauce. It doesn't take long for the garlic to burn, which will ruin the sauce completely! Believe me, I have a habit of burning garlic :)
6. Now leave sauce to simmer, serve the pasta on a plate and pour the sauce over it. Sprinkle a bit of cheese on top, and enjoy :)

Yum!

As I said before this recipe was completely done spare of the moment, hence the name cupboard pasta, if I had had some minced beef I would have added that in too, or some chilli or proper kidney beans instead of baked beans. I'm also aware that the Americans have a version of this called Chili Mac, but this is still a little bit different (I think).

I hope you enjoy it, and don't be scared to experiment with food. I experimented with this dish, and came out with something new I will cook again and again.