Pork and Pine Nut Penne

Pork and Pine Nut Penne.

Ok, so I’ve named this Pork and Pine Nut Penne, but there’s no Penne in the picture.  What’s the deal with that?  I was cooking this up, after the kids had had their lunch, getting organised for dinner.  Norah saw the pine nuts and took an instant liking into what I was cooking.  She demanded to have a taste straight from the frying pan.

To puree or not to puree?  That was my question.  The twins are really hit an miss with lumps and veg you can actually see.  But when Norah decided she was going to eat it the way it was and ask for a bowl of it (after she’d already eaten lunch), the decision was made for me.  Not to puree!  That makes it so much easier anyway.  I look forward to only using the blender for soups and desserts and leaving it in the cupboard for meals like this one.

This is how we ended up with Pork and Pine Nut Penne, without the Penne.  The kids were in too much of a hurry to eat it and were definitely not going to wait for pasta to cook!

8 Child Sized Portions.

If, like me you are cooking this up for the kiddos and freezing it for convenience later, I got 8 portions (approximately 130g a serve).  They’re obviously not going to have this for dinner now that they’ve eaten it already today.  But next time I grab this from the freezer for them, I will cook some Penne and take some more pics.  No doubt I will ruin it for them and I should just take the Penne off the end of this recipe.

*Edit* I reheated left overs for the twins and added the penne and they still ate it! Whoop whoop.

Print

Pork and Pine Nut Penne

Total fat content:  Approximately 91.2g of fat

Easy dinner for the whole family

Course Dinner

Keyword Penne, Pine Nuts, Pork

Cook Time 20 minutes

Total Time 20 minutes

Ingredients

• 500 g pork mince 25g of fat
• 1 tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil 18.3g of fat
• 1 zucchini
• 1/2 red onion
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1 veg stock pot or stock cube
• 70 g pine nuts 47.9g of fat
• 1/2 tsp dried oregano
• 400 g tinned tomatoes
• 1 packet penne

Instructions

1. Place a pot of water on the stove and follow cooking instructions on the packet of Penne.

2. Grate the zucchini, peel and crush the garlic and finely dice the onion.

   

3. Place a large frying pan on a high heat and pour in the pine nuts.  Move the pine nuts around, evenly toasting as you go.  One slightly browned, pour into a small bowl ready for later.  Place the pan back on the heat.

   

4. Add the oil and the onion and cook for a couple of minutes until slightly softened.

   

5. Add the garlic and the zucchini and stir for a couple more minutes.

   

6. Add the pork mince to the frying pan.  Constantly breaking it up with your spoon as it cooks.

   

7. Once the pork is broken up and cooked through, add the tomatoes, stock pot and oregano.

   

8. Once everything is incorporated, stir in the toasted pine nuts.

   

9. Serve stirred through the cooked penne (or any other choice of pasta).

Recipe Notes

Total fat content:  Approximately 91.2g of fat.

8 child serves at approximately 11.4g of fat per serve.

IF YOU LOVED THIS RECIPE, SUBSCRIBE NOW TO RECEIVE ALL OUR NEW RECIPES WITH THE FAT CONTENT ALREADY CALCULATED FOR YOU.