pasta and pals.

last week i made dinner for three of my dear friends...elise, jack and kelsey. i was very stressed about the evening as my friends are tough critics; and are all self admittedly, hard to please. i.e. ' i dont eat raw tomato, i dont eat meat - only chicken, i dont like spicy food, capsicum is gross etc. i do love them though, despite this :)

i had not planned what i was going to make on the evening, but i managed to throw together a two course meal with inspiration from a photo that kelsey showed me of a jamie oliver pasta dish. i made fresh pasta with a homemade tomato sauce, flavoured with onion, garlic, (mild) chilli and basil. i chucked in some grilled chicken and topped it off with shards of crispy prosciutto and freshly grated parmesan. it was quite yum.

for dessert i made a deconstructed chocolate ganache tart. just because. this was a simple dish, but it looked pretty and it seemed to please. it consisted of a quenelle of chocolate ganache, a biscuit disc, strawberry coulis, a quenelle of cream (which my friends do not eat, so it was there for presentation purposes and my consumption only),  a fanned strawberry and all this was topped off with shards of a crunchie bar. i like topping things off with shards of stuff, dont i? shards is a good word. powerful. anyhow, here is the dish.

- thefridgeraider