Ligurian green bean and potato pasta

Once I had drawn up the list of 33 store cupboard ingredients the next task was to find 33 different recipes. Many of the meals I cook in the house transfer easily to campervan cooking. The equipment in the house is not that different; I cook on a bottled gas hob and although the new cuisinière bought earlier this year has a fully-functioning oven, I rarely use it. We are not the ‘meat-and-two-veg’ type of carnivores, in fact, I would describe our diet as quasi-vegetarian. OH says that he would indeed become vegetarian if it wasn’t for his occasional desire for steak frites. I have quite a small worktop surface area and rarely use more than two saucepans (aversion to washing-up), so I can adapt very easily to cooking in the campervan.

When I started to compile my campervan cookbook I realised that a few fresh or frozen ingredients were also necessary in addition to the store cupboard 33. So, I have drawn up the ‘blue list’. This is some basic stock items for the fridge and freezer; if I start off a trip with these in stock, plus a few fresh ingredients, and replace when used I can be sure of making any of my 33 recipes – or at least that’s the plan.

1	Milk
2	Eggs
3	Crème fraiche
4	Grated Italian cheese
5	Smoked lardons
6	A Chorizo sausage or similar
7	Garlic

 

I’ve got a basic repertoire of about 20 regular recipes noted in my Everyday Recipe Project book and a few more in my special ‘diet book’, but not all of these meet the campervan criteria: cook on gas hob, use maximum of two pans, comprised of principally store cupboard ingredients and, most important for the washer-up and the waste tank, not too much greasy residue. My plan is to trawl through our cookbooks and the Internet to find some exciting new recipes to try out in the campervan.

My first find was in the Hugh Fernley-Whittingstall Everyday Veg book. Obviously, Hugh describes freshly dug new potatoes and hand-picked green beans, plus a complicated home-made pesto sauce. If I ignored the long list of ingredients and substituted some shop-bought pesto sauce I reckoned on making this easily from half a tin of potatoes that were lurking in the fridge. The results were delicious, so this is the first new recipe for the Campervan cookbook.

Ligurian Green Bean and Potato pasta