Stilton

Shortly after New Year, I stumbled across one of my all time favourite bargains ever. Half moons of blue stilton marked down to £1 when they’re originally been £8 each at full price.

I bought three, cut them into wedges, wrapped these in paper and put them in the freezer. Possibly freezing Stilton isn’t the best way to preserve its flavour but at this price I didn’t care. Probably I won’t need to buy any more blue cheese this year!

The price of everyday cheese as gone up by stealth. A couple of years ago, if you shopped around you could buy cheddar for £5 per kilo but today it’s nearer double that.

Worse still is the insidious size reduction of pre-packed products. Cheese, now commonly sold in 350g packs rather than 400g (and before that 440g and prior to that 500g!!) is not unique here. Everything from bottles of cola to bags of bagels has had pack sizes shaved down whilst prices remain static hoping the consumer won’t notice.

I regularly comment to my husband that it’s
a) my mental arithmetic
b) a knowledge how to cook from scratch
c) flexibility to bulk buy when items are genuinely on offer
… that keeps our shopping bills down.

If you weren’t so great at maths, not an experienced cook and on a very rigid budget it would be very different.

So I was delirious almost to find this blue Stilton priced at the equivalent of around £2 per kilo. Cheese hasn’t been that cheap this century probably.

My other thrifty habit recently has been to buy pairs of bags of rocket when they’re on offer (or indeed marked down miserable basil plants) and what doesn’t get eaten in salads or sandwiches gets whizzed up my own pesto before it turns floppy. Generally a small tub of home made pesto will stay in my fridge for up to a week and sometimes I freeze portions too.

Ways to use homemade pesto

Tossed with pasta
Spread it on toasted bread such as bruschetta or ciabatta
As a pizza sauce instead of tomato
Spread on tortilla wraps
Mixed into salad dressings
Mixed into cheese sauces
Stuff chicken breasts
Coat grilled fish fillets

Traditionally pesto would be made from basil, parmesan, garlic, pine nuts and olive oil however recently I have ringed the changes with the left over rocket leaves, used different oils, nuts and cheese. You can also make pesto mixes using roasted peppers, aubergines or sundried tomatoes rather than green leaves and herbs.

Hence this particular mix today:

Leftover rocket pesto with walnut and stilton

Half a bag of rocket
A handful of walnuts
Some chunks of blue Stilton
Olive oil
and of course garlic.

I’m not specifying exact quantities because these aren’t rigid. Simply blitz the lot in a handheld blender until you’re happy with the texture. Use it immediately or store in the fridge or freezer.

Do you ever make your own pesto?

I’m sharing this pesto with these events:

To Fiona hosting Elizabeth’s No Waste Food Challenge (using up rocket), Helen & Camilla’s Credit Crunch Munch (bargain cheese) this month hosted by My Golden Pear, and finally mine and Katie’s new Speedy Suppers event for 30 minute meals.

This blue cheese pasta bake is the result of a “fridge dive” using up ingredients in the fridge.

Blue cheese pasta bake with butternut and broccoli

I don’t know why pasta bakes have been under used in our house but I intend to change this. Generally do pasta straight with sauces or pesto, our favoured shapes are linguine or quills. I don’t like farfalle butterflies as the centres are still hard when the outside is cooked.

Recently I saw a pasta bake in a picture that used this spirally pasta and I went out and bought some – it’s the de Cecco brand in blue and yellow packets. They do all the best shapes! Interestingly though, my Italian friends who used to live with us favoured Buitoni as their dried pasta of choice.

One of my new year’s resolutions is to make my own pasta, I have not done this yet but have purchased a pack of 00 flour in readiness.

At the weekend I spotted all the big packs of Stilton being marked down in the supermarket – 500g cost just £3.50 and I might have bought 1 kilo for £5 but this seemed a bit excessive.

I’m ashamed to say the broccoli and butternut squash had been lurking in the fridge since before Christmas – the butternut squash having had its end sliced off a couple of times to keep it fresh. My mother would probably have thrown it away but beyond the first 2mm of cut surface there was really nothing wrong with it.

This pasta bake, served in my late Grandma’s glossy red ceramic dishes fed the family for two meals. All of us together the first time then each of us enjoying a separate lunch or supper. My husband welcomed the change from sandwiches and I’m going to make pasta bake a regular event from now on.

I am sending my pasta bake to two brand new blog events run by my friends. The first is Pasta Please hosted by Jacc and the second is Credit Crunch Munch hosted by Camilla jointly with Helen.

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