Quick January dinners for busy weeknights
January evenings have a very particular feeling. It gets dark incredibly early, the house looks bare with all the decorations down, and everyone is a little lack lustre. You want something comforting for supper, but not something that takes an hour and three pans to make.
This is where a really good deli earns its keep. With the right pasta, sauces, cheese, oils and fish, you can turn a handful of ingredients into something that feels special with hardly any effort at all.
Fresh pasta with butter and parmesan
When you have frozen pasta, you don’t need to do much to it. A pot of salted water, a knob of butter, a good grating of parmesan or pecorino, and a little black pepper is all it takes. The frozen pasta we stock comes in some lovely flavours - swordfish and lime, mushroom, salmon and wild boar. Add a simple butter and parmesan sauce just to give it a glossy coating, nothing heavy. It’s simple, comforting and quietly luxurious.
Dried pasta with a proper jar sauce
A good jar of sauce is one of the most useful things to have in the cupboard. We stock a range made slowly, with real tomatoes, olive oil and herbs, and very little else. Warm it gently, toss it through your favourite dried pasta, and you have a meal that tastes as if someone has been cooking for hours. Add a little grated cheese or a drizzle of olive oil and it is even better.
Easy tray-bake salmon
This is one of our go-to midweek dinners. Lay a couple of our salmon fillets in a roasting tray, drizzle with olive oil, add a squeeze of lemon and a pinch of salt and pepper, then bake for 12 to 15 minutes. You can throw in a handful of cherry tomatoes some greens or Mediterranean veggies if you like, but it is just as good on its own. Fresh, satisfying and wonderfully simple.
Macaroni cheese with truffle
There are nights when you want something comforting but still a little bit special. A good macaroni dish with truffle does exactly that. Stir a spoonful of truffle salsa from the jar through macaroni cheese before baking, and it instantly fills the kitchen with the most wonderful earthy aroma of truffle and porcini mushroom. Finished with a topping of grated cheese and black pepper, it is rich, simple and quietly indulgent, perfect for a cold January evening.
None of these dinners are complicated, but they all rely on ingredients that have been chosen with care. That is exactly what we try to do at Gastro Nicks. If you are not sure what to pick, just ask. We are always happy to help you put together something that makes a midweek night feel closer to the weekend.