Seaweed Farfalle & Pesto with Fiery Chilli Halloumi

Pasta is remarkably versatile. It is amazing how much you can do with some flour and eggs. This is another of my favourite pasta recipes. Pesto on fresh, homemade pasta is one of the most perfect comfort foods, and it is really quite simple to make your own (both - the pasta and the pesto). It may seem tricky at first but the more you make it the easier it becomes. Go on, try it, you won't be disappointed. Once you try making your own you'll never go back to shop-bought. To make seaweed pasta add a tablespoon of coarsely ground dried seaweed before adding the eggs when making your pasta dough. Continue as usual.

I usually make this recipe with plain pasta and pesto. I used to make it with ordinary halloumi and fresh chillies, but then I discovered the magic that is fiery halloumi with chillies. Bliss! I still use the fresh chillies as well - you can never have too many chillies, no?

Today I thought I'd try something a little different and add some seaweed to both the pasta and the pesto. Seaweed contains a multitude of trace minerals and other nutrients and with a whole list of health benefits it surely can't hurt to regularly add some to your diet.

It worked!

I even dished some up for my friend and her eldest son, who both scoffed with enthusiasm. Her son, aged 8, remarked to his mother, "Mam! She takes photos of her food! Mam, this pasta is delicious!"

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Seaweed Farfalle with Pesto & Chilli Halloumi

by Elizabeth 

A spicy dish packed full of flavour and texture

Ingredients

• fresh seaweed farfalle
• 4 heaped tbsp seaweed pesto
• 225 grams fiery halloumi with chilli, sliced into 1/4 inch thick slices
• 1 large red chilli, finely sliced
• baby red chard leaves, to serve

Instructions

1. Prepare your pasta using 400 grams '00' flour and 4 eggs.2. Bring a pot of salted water to the boil and heat a non-stick pan to medium-high. 3. Boil the pasta for 3 minutes and drain.4. Meanwhile, gently fry the sliced halloumi for just over a minute on both sides, until lightly golden.5. Stir the seaweed pesto through the pasta.6. Arrange baby red chard leaves on a plate. Top with the pasta and fried halloumi slices.7. Garnish with sliced red chilli. Serve immediately.

Details

Prep time: 1 hour & 15 mins Cook time: 10 mins Total time: 1 hour & 25 mins Yield: Serves 4

Making homemade pasta is a fantastic way to get children involved in cooking. Mine love turning the handle of the pasta machine and helping to pinch the centre of the dough to make little pasta butterflies. The youngest is quite content rolling and re-rolling the scrap end bits.

I have entered this recipe into the second installment of Pasta Please, a new food blogging challenge alternately hosted by Lisa from We Don't Eat Anything With A Face and Jacqueline from Tinned Tomatoes. This month Lisa has challenged us to come up with a vegetarian dish involving peppers. To make sure this recipe is vegetarian make sure you use a vegetarian-friendly Parmesan cheese when making the pesto.

I have also entered this recipe into Simply.Food's Flavours of Series 4 around Europe: Flavours of Italy round-up guest hosted this month by Divya's Culinary Journey.