Jamie Oliver's Happiness Pasta and Everyday Super Food Cookbook Review

Pasta.  Happiness is thy name.

Well it's the name of this pasta is anyway. It's Jamie Oliver's happiness pasta from his new healthy cookbook Everyday Super Food.

Wholewheat fusilli pasta coated in a rich tomato and aubergine sauce with a bit of kick from chilli, some crunch from pine nuts and a creamy scattering of ricotta cheese.

Jamie used ricotta cheese as it's very low in saturated fat compared to most other cheeses. It's also high in calcium. My vegan friends will know that calcium is also found in plant based foods too, such as cabbage, rocket, kale and broccoli as well as chickpeas, tofu, tahini and oranges.

Before we get to the recipe, I'd like to tell you more about the cookbook.

I rather like this Jamie Oliver cookbook. In fact I rather like Jamie too. He's such an appealing chap and his recipes are really do-able. Nothing too fancy or bizarre. This one is all about healthy eating. The kind of healthy eating that'll excite you at mealtimes. Follow the recipes in this book and you'll eat healthy but really enjoy your food.

Everday Super Food is a beautiful book with gorgeous full size photos that will make you drool (most of the photos were taken by Jamie). The cookbook has 30 recipes for breakfast, 30 for lunches, 30 for dinners as well as snacks and drinks. I particularly liked the breakfast and snack ideas and was blown away by his Awesome Granola Dust and all it's uses. Why didn't I think of that?

In preparation for this book (in the run up to his 40th birthday) Jamie travelled around the world to meet people and talk about food. He came back and worked with nutritionists to pull together what he learned into healthy and fresh recipes and ideas.

There's a tv show to accompany this book, so you can follow Jamie's foodie travels. It's airing now on Channel 4 and it's called Jamie's Super Food.

photo: Channel 4

The first episode aired tonight and focused on his trip to the Nicoyan Pennisula in Costa Rica, where living to 100 isn't unusual and the Greek island of Ikaria where the on average the people live 10 years longer than the rest of Europe.

If you missed it you can catch it on Channel 4's On Demand service.

Everyday Super Food

by Jamie Oliver 

Veggie Count

Vegetarian recipes = 97  

Vegan recipes = 39 

(using dairy free yoghurt, nut milk 

and agave nectar where appropriate)

Find out more about Jamie Oliver (and other great chefs) on The Happy Foodie.

print recipe

Happiness Pasta

Written by Jacqueline Meldrum with kind permission. 

September 7, 2015

A comforting pasta dish with a rich tomato and aubergine sauce, with the kick of chilli, crunch of pine nuts and creamy pockets of ricotta from Jamie Oliver and his new book Everyday Super Food.

Ingredients

• 2 aubergines
• 1-2 fresh red chillies
• 40g pine nuts
• 2 cloves garlic
• 30g fresh basil
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 2 x 400g tins plum tomatoes
• 300g dried wholewheat fusilli
• 200g ricotta cheese
• 10g veggie style parmesan cheese

Instructions

1. Sit a double-layer bamboo steamer over a large pan of boiling salted water. Halve the aubergines lengthways and add to the baskets skin side up, with the whole chillies. Cover and steam for 25 minutes, or until soft and tender, then remove. Transfer the chillies to a small bowl and cover with clingfilm. 2. Lightly toast the pine nuts in a large casserole pan on a medium heat, then lightly crush in a pestle and mortar. Peel and finely slice the garlic and finely chop the basil stalks, then add to the pan with 1 tablespoon of oil and return to the heat to cook until golden. 3. Tip the tomatoes into the pan through your hands, crushing and scrunching them up as you go. Fill each tin with water, swirl it around, and add to the pan with a good pinch of sea salt and black pepper. Bring to the boil, then simmer gently for 30 minutes, or until reduced by half, roughly chopping and adding the aubergines for the last 10 minutes. 4. Meanwhile, cook the pasta in the pan of boiling salted water according to the packet instructions, then drain, reserving a mugful of cooking water.5. Peel and deseed the chillies, then finely chop and stir into the sauce. Tear in most of the basil leaves and season to perfection. Toss the pasta and ricotta through the sauce, loosening with a little reserved water if needed. Serve with the pine nuts and remaining basil leaves scattered over, with a grating of Parmesan.6. Enjoy!

Details

Total time: 60 mins
Yield: Serves 4

In the mood for pasta now? 

Here are some of my favourite pasta dishes:

Edamame, Feta & Beet Pasta Salad

Messicani Spinach & Cheese Sauce

Best Summer Pasta Salad

Disclosure: Penguin Books kindly sent me a copy of Everyday Super Food for review purposes and gave mre permission to print this recipe and photo. I was not expected to write a positive review and any opinions expressed are my own.