Ah, the dreaded first week back at work after the Christmas break. I made it a little more bearable by cooking up this delicious and easy pasta.

It takes a bit longer to make your own pasta but totally worth it. If you’re looking for an easy weeknight meal or are in a rush, store-bought spaghetti works too. Another substitution to speed up the process is to use store bought basil pesto. It will still be awesome, just speedier. If you do this I suggest finely chopping up some spinach and adding this to it to include that green goodness.

Serves 4

Ingredients

Pasta
400g flour
4 eggs

If using packet – approx. 1 packet of dried spaghetti or fettuccine

Sauce
2 cups spinach
2 cups basil
juice of half a lemon
1/2 cup olive oil
1/4 cup grated parmesan
1/4 cup pine nuts

Other ingredients 
250g cottage cheese or ricotta
juice of half a lemon
1 tsp crushed garlic
400g chicken thigh
2 chorizo sausages
handful of pine nuts

Start by making the pasta. You can do this by putting the flour and eggs in a food processor and pulsing it (the ideal option) or, if you don’t have a food processor, or like me, you’ve managed to lose a key part of your food processor, do it by hand (another suggestion is to use your boyfriend as your food processor – this worked well for me!)

To make it by hand put the flour on your work surface, make a well in the middle and place the eggs in it. Mix the flour and eggs together with your hands. Once the dough starts to come together, knead for a couple of minutes. Place in the fridge for 30-60 minutes.

While your dough is chilling it’s the perfect time to put together your sauce. Chop the spinach and basil and then place in a food processor with the remaining sauce ingredients and pulse to make the sauce. If you don’t have a food processor a mortar and pestle will work too.

Once the pasta has rested, roll it out using a pasta machine and then using the fettuccine setting cut the pasta into noodles. Put your cut fettuccine over a pasta holder to dry out (or lay out flat on a dry, lightly floured bench). Ensure they aren’t touching each other as they’ll stick.

Coat the chicken thighs (I always use chicken thigh, so much tastier than chicken breast and harder to dry out) in the lemon juice and garlic and pan fry until cooked and brown. Add in the chorizo and pine nuts for the last 60 seconds – watch out for the pine nuts as they’re way too easy to burn.

Bring a pot of water to the boil with a little salt and olive oil. Place your pasta in the pot and cook for 7 minutes or until al dente.

Once cooked, toss through the sauce and cottage cheese or ricotta and serve with the chicken and chorizo on top.

We served this with a fresh salad, delish!

I took this to work the next day for lunch and I have to say it was even more amazing. There’s something special about leftovers.