Nosh for Nothing - Student Meals

I returned to university this week which means I have to be an adult again...bother. I have to make all my meals and do all my washing! The summer was fun while it lasted.  Luckily it was freshers week so I only ended up having to cook for myself once. I wanted to make something quick and cost effective so I decided to make Mediterranean pasta. The first time I tried this dish was at a cooking demonstration at church at the start of the summer and I really enjoyed it! It is quite a light dish as it is vegetarian but the richness of the cherry tomatoes in the sauce gives it a hearty feel to it. This dish is great for students on a tight budget because this meal worked out being less than £2 per serving. It's also super quick - only taking about 15 minutes to make! The longest part was cooking the pasta! 

Ingredients: 

• 100g cherry tomatoes (quartered)

• 100g pasta

• 20 ml olive oil

• 2 mint leaves (finely chopped)

• 2 basil leaves (finely chopped)

• 20g feta cheese (cubed) 

• 1 garlic clove (sliced finely) 

• Salt and pepper to taste 

Method 

1. Place a saucepan of water on to boil, season generously with salt and once boiling add in the pasta. Cook pasta until al dente (this is just a fancy way of saying slightly crunchy). This will usually take about 6-8 minutes. 

2. Meanwhile place tomatoes, garlic and olive oil into a frying pan over a medium high heat. Bring to the boil and cook until tomatoes have softened. 

3. Once tomatoes have softened stir in cooked pasta, feta, basil and mint. You don't need the herbs (I didn't have any when I made this last) but they do provide a depthless of flavour if you add them in! Worth the extra few pence if you do! We served ours with garlic bread. You could add in some chicken if you wanted to bulk it up a bit but I don't think it needs it.