Second-years hungry for independence
GOING AWAY from home to university or college is a massive step in a young person’s life. It means no more school uniform and no more nagging parents. It also gives you an opportunity to socialise enthusiastically, drink alcohol legally and, time permitting, do a bit of studying.
However, with new freedoms come new responsibilities. One of the scariest for many teenagers starting further education is the fact that they are, for the first time, responsible for feeding themselves. Even if you are receiving three meals a day in a hall of residence for your first year, the chances are that when you move out in year two, there will be no one to cook for you.
The good news for students is that compared to writing a thesis on Nietzsche or delving into the world of quantum physics, cooking is easy. The trick is to have a couple of recipes up your sleeve that you have practised at home on parents and siblings before departing for your first term away.
You can’t go wrong with a standard tomato sauce recipe. This is easy, nutritious and versatile. After all you can serve it with spaghetti, tagliatelle, farfalle... that’s a different meal every night. You could be even more adventurous by serving it with chicken or fish or adding worsht or salami for a meatier dinner. If you were in a reckless mood you could even put in extra vegetables and conjure up a vegetarian lasagne.
Garlic is that thing that looks oniony but isn’t one’
My first self-cooked meal at university was based on my newly learnt tomato-sauce making skills and it was a triumph — at least it would have been had the gas meter not run out before I could cook the pasta to accompany the sauce. After a moment’s despair I came up with a plan — the tomato sauce was served on a bed of ready salted crisps (I was thinking nachos) with a grating of cheddar cheese. Soggy but edible. The next time I served it with pasta and it was as tasty as any spaghetti with tomato sauce you could order in a trattoria.
This is how to make it. Peel and chop an onion as finely as you dare (a sharp knife is essential here — preferably not one designed for bread or butter). Then chop three cloves of garlic (garlic has white skin and looks oniony but isn’t an onion). Heat a couple of tablespoons of olive or vegetable oil in a saucepan and sweat the onions and garlic over a low heat with the lid on until the onions are translucent but not brown. The only way to achieve this is to stay in the kitchen while the onions cook, tempting though it may be to go to the pub for a quick pint. Then, add a can of chopped tomatoes (you should remove the tomatoes from the can first). Turn up the heat to