Not much in the cupboard. Even less in the freezer. It’s crab and prawns with pappardelle pasta.

I am a pretty well organised person. Too well organised, some might say. Often, I hear the family muttering of OCD as I arrange neat rows of tins in kitchen cupboards. I must have a list when I go shopping. I like to have it in ‘Notes’ on my phone so I can delete the items as I pop them into my trolley. Nothing left in the note means everything I need has been purchased. However, I have a blind spot. A big blind spot. My weeks’ thinking starts on Sunday (my usual blog post cooking day). As a result, I have everything planned for Sunday breakfast, Sunday’s Family Dinner and for evening meals for the early part of the following week. I do the shopping on Saturday morning. I have a dreadful habit of forgetting to get anything for Saturday evening. If I lived alone, this would not be a problem. However, I live with the Wife….

It’s usually around mid afternoon when she asks, in total innocence “What’s planned for dinner Love?”. I have resorted to “Dinner…? Oh, it’s a surprise.” Some few minutes later, I collect the car keys and bluster some excuse to go to the shops. Inconvenient as this is, it works pretty well. I get put under pressure. The Wife gets fed and there is only a small white lie between us. Last week, the wife broke her part of this unwritten contract. She didn’t ask about dinner. Not until it was too late for me to go and buy anything. I had to think and act quickly. I got lucky.

A rummage in the freezer, fridge and cupboards yielded my ingredients.

To put together Crab and Prawns in a Hot Tomato Sauce with Pasta, you will need:

• 8-10 prawns
• 8-10 crab toes
• 12-16 small tomatoes
• 1 tablespoon of tomato paste
• Good quality olive oil
• 4-6 cloves of garlic (2 bulbs of single bulb garlic)
• A big handful of rocket leaves
• A teaspoon of chili flakes

For the pasta

• A medium egg and the yolk of a second egg
• 110 grammes of “00” flour

To make the pasta, combine the egg and flour.

One can do this by hand. I was in lazy form and the Wife was hungry.

When combined, use the dough hook and beat for 10 minutes on low. Alternatively, knead the dough on a flat surface for about 10 minutes.

The dough hook is undoubtedly the lazy way.

Wrap the dough in cling film and pop it in the fridge for a half an hour. Then slice the garlic up nice and small.

Don’t stint on the garlic. This is a big flavour dish. Note the fine slicing!

Heat some olive oil in a high sided pan and add the garlic. Get a good big pot of water on the boil for the pasta.

My, oh my, that’s a lot of garlic. Mmmmm garlic…

Add the prawns and cook them until they turn colour. This will not take long. Take them out of the pot and reserve.

This cooks the prawns and adds lots of garlic flavour to them.

Next, add the tomatoes, tomato paste and chili flakes. Take some photos of the lovely colours.

I was lucky enough to have three kinds of mini tomatoes in the fridge.

Add the crab toes and turn down the heat. These are cooked already and only need to be warmed through.

Give the crab a good stir and take more photos.

The tomatoes should start to break down at this stage. This makes a bit more sauce. Roll out the pasta.

Get the pasta nice and thin. before laying it out on a smooth surface.

I use semolina to stop the pasta from sticking. This falls off the pasta in the cooking. I sliced the pasta into 2.5cm wide strips (pappardelle width).

Lovely thick strips of fresh pasta. The Wife will be impressed with dinner tonight!

Add the pasta to the boiling water.

This bit will only take two minutes. Don’t hang around with the other steps.

Turn the heat up under the sauce. Add the prawns back in. Add the rocket.

This is working out really well. Thanks be to goodness!

Drain the pasta when it is still “al denté”. Add the pasta to the sauce.

Nearly there. There is nothing like fresh pasta.

Stir to combine.

A totally gratuitous stirred pasta in sauce shot. It looks lovely. I hope you agree.

Call the Wife in for her dinner….

It took a lot less time to eat than to prepare. Always a good sign.

We enjoyed this with a nice bottle of Spanish red wine. It was on hand and seemed to be a good choice. It was. I can’t remember what it was. I see Rick Stein doing this empty plate stuff on his TV shows of late. If it’s good enough for Rick, it’s good enough for me.

Note the casually placed crab toe remains to the side. This stuff takes thinking about!

The Wife never noticed. She was delighted with the ‘surprise dinner’. In future, I’ll try to have my act together. I can’t get this lucky again.