(^46) July 2019 Truck & Driver
PASTA
Ah, pasta, is there anything
better than a lovely bowl of this
Italian wonder food? It’s been a
favourite of mine since
childhood, when my mum used
to make it a lot. Apart from the
fact it’s just plain delicious, it is
also ridiculously versatile and
even more ridiculously cheap.
Of all the different varieties
available, I tend to love spaghetti
or linguini most, although these
recipes will work with any shape
or type of pasta.
RECIPE 1
So, recipe one is a reminder of
my childhood. It was a treat and I
still make it to this day... cheesy
pasta! It really doesn’t get better
if you’re a cheese fan. You’ll need
the pasta of your choice, a lump
of butter, your choice of cheese
(I tend to go for a mix of Red
Leicester and mature Cheddar,
grated), grated Parmesan, salt,
pepper and some cherry
tomatoes, halved. Top tip: it’s
much easier to buy ready-grated
cheese and no more expensive.
In a decent non-stick pan –
trust me, it’s a nightmare trying
to get melted cheese off a
below-par pan – boil some salted
water. Once it’s boiling, pop in
the pasta and reduce to a
simmer. Although it’s slightly
more expensive, fresh pasta
tastes better and cooks faster
than the dried variety. It also
reheats better if you want to
consume any left-overs later.
Once it’s cooked to your taste
(I like it ‘al dente’, with a little bite
to it), drain and pop to one side.
Then chuck your lump of butter
in the pan and melt on a very low
heat. Once it’s melted, pop in the
pasta and stir. When it has a nice
coating of butter, drop in the
cheese and stir until it’s evenly
melted all over the pasta. Plate it
up, season with a decent amount
of salt and pepper (lots of pepper
is amazing on this dish) and
garnish with the tomatoes and a
liberal sprinkling of Parmesan.
Super easy and super tasty. A
slightly different way of doing it
would be to substitute an egg for
the butter; this is also very
acceptable but I prefer the butter
version, probably because that’s
how my mum made it!
RECIPE 2
The second recipe is even
easier. A variety of ready-made
sauces are available or use
tinned tomatoes or passata; all
are equally delicious. I prefer the
passata, which is basically
liquidised tomatoes.
As above, cook the pasta to
your taste, drain, pop back in the
pan and add your sauce. Most
sauces will instruct you to heat
them up separately but this isn’t
really necessary.
Stir around until your pasta
has a nice coating, lower the
EQUIPMENT YOU’LL NEED
You can prepare most meals with a very basic set of
implements, as follows:
Basics Small gas cooker with spare gas bottle;
frying pan with lid; small saucepan; plate; bowl; knife,
fork & spoon; plastic cooking utensils; kettle.
Advanced Whisk; box grater; measuring jug; wok;
scissors; chopping board.
A
s we all know, this
job can be
ridiculously
unhealthy thanks to
its sedentary nature
and the awful foods available
while out on the road. By simply
cooking and preparing your
food in the cab, I want to show
that you needn’t be restricted
to service areas and their
unhealthy, overpriced food.
In the real world, the last
thing any of us wants to do at
the end of a 15-hour day is
exercise! So it’s just as well
that your health is 80% what
you eat. With adjustments to
your diet I’ll show you how to
not only get back
that 32-inch waist
but maintain it.
Diets don’t work,
they never have and
they never will. You
need to change
habits permanently
and with some
willpower this can be
done, often by starting
with small steps such
as giving up sugar in
your tea and/or coffee.
So, cooking in your cab!
“Noooo!!” I hear people
scream, “I’m not cooking in my
cab as it smells/takes too long/
is too much effort” (delete as
appropriate). None of these
statements need be true – and
even if the smell lingers in the
cab for a while, it’s a small
price to pay for the benefit of
your health!
Once set up and into the
swing of it, you can have a full
meal ready in the time it takes
to walk to a truckstop and
order food. I’ll also be giving
you little tips on how to make
the most amount of food for
the least amount of effort.
Food
to go
Welcome to our
series on eating
good food on the
road. This month
Luke cooks up a
trio of pasta recipes
With Luke Vernon
Spaghetti is a Luke favourite
nandana
(Nandana)
#1