Budget living recipes: Sausage pasta

Budget Sausage pasta recipe:

Budget Cooking Sausage pasta Photo: Russell Bowes

This was my lunch from day one of the budget living and cooking challenge I have set us for this week . This recipe came for under £1 for a portion which I think was quite good for a budget recipe. I had almost all of the ingredients in for this recipe, all I needed was some form of tomato for the sauce. I ended up buying a 300g jar of tomato pasata from Morrisons for £0.99p. I used up about 1/3rd of the jar so around 33p for this making it one of the day’s most expensive items. It really makes you think when your cooking and living on a tight budget.

I never even think when I buy something a simple as a tin of tomatoes or jar of pasata but today I was standing in Morrisons looking at the pasata and mentaly thinking if I’d get enough use out of it to justify the £0.99p it would cost. I figured if its in today lunch and then i can make an evening meal out of the bulk of it then its okay to get it.

Will be an interesting week.

Budget Sausage Pasta

Ingredients (with costing)
4 pork chipolatas – 22p from a pack of 18 for £1 in the reduced section
1/2 an onion – 5p
1/4rd jar pasata – 25p
spinach – 15p
clove of garlic – 5p
100g pasta – 14p
Total cost 86p per serving.

Recipe

Pop the grill on to warm up and set a pan of water to boil for the sausages. Finely chop the onion and garlic.

When the grill has warmed up and the water is boiling. Pop the sausages under and pasta in for 15 minutes, turning half way through. Pasta in the water, sausages in the grill.

When they are five minutes from being ready, pop some oil in the pan and fry the garlic and onion for a few minutes till translucent. Add the pasata and warm through.

Chop the sausages and add to the sauce, then drain the pasta and do the same.

Serve with the spinach (washed) on the side.

By Russell Bowes

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