Mid-Week Meal: Sausage Pasta with Spinach

By Dorothy Miles

Today is another work from home day, so I make the most of it by doing a bit of extra pottering in the kitchen between meetings. After breakfast, I make chicken stock from the bones leftover from the chicken we ate at the weekend. The carcass, the wings, an onion, carrot, some peppercorns and a bay leaf go into the stock pot and I cover it with water. I turn it on to a high heat and set a timer for 20 minutes. I go back to my desk and trawl through a few emails until the timer goes off. By now, the stock is boiling, so I turn it down to a low simmer, put the lid on and leave it for anywhere between one and two hours whilst I crack on with work. When it’s done, I turn off the heat and leave it to cool until lunchtime.

When lunchtime finally does come around, I strain the stock – discarding the veg and herbs, which have done their job. I transfer the stock into a container and leave it until it’s cool enough for the fridge. I’ll use this to make my soup later in the week. The chicken bones get picked before the go in the bin. The wings in particular have a nice amount of meat left on them that I don’t want to waste. I pick off all the meat I can then pop it in a bowl. I’ll mix this with some mayo for a chicken sandwich to take with me to work tomorrow. For today’s lunch, I reheat the leftover cauliflower cheese in the microwave and shred some lettuce. I whisk up a quick dressing with lemon juice and Dijon mustard to go alongside. I head back to my desk and eat my cauli-cheese while I work.

It’s pasta on the menu tonight – a proper weeknight staple for us. This pasta dish is pretty quick to cook, which is a good job as I’m tutoring this evening and I’m always starving once I’m done!