Tuna Pasta Bake

Sainsbury's recently ran a campaign where they offer plans for five meals that you can feed a family of four with. The second meal plan had for one of the meals a tuna pasta bake, that consisted largely of Basics ingredients. Aside from the ingredients you see above, and aside from the obvious pasta, the bake also contains mushrooms. I decided to give this recipe a little go this time as it involved something that I still have some doubts over - the Basics pasta sauce.

 While preparing the mushrooms for the bake I noticed that the caps of most of them were fully open, gills exposed. I remembered from the article about the white button mushroom and its brethren on Wikipedia that what are commonly marketed as white mushrooms (Sainsbury's included) are young mushrooms that have closed caps. Portobello mushrooms on the other hand are those who have been allowed to fully develop into giant caps of mushroom flavour. Those that go into the tubs of Basics mushrooms then are those that are neither here nor there. If you are not planning to go for presentation though, like slicing mushrooms for pizzas, and don't mind the extra effort to clean the dirt off the mushrooms, they make a good buy.

Most of the recipe can be found in the link above. For this particular one I left out the tomatoes as I didn't want to buy the fresh ones or the canned ones (too expensive, and too much liquid respectively)

The pasta sauce threatened to ruin everything, but ultimately it was the mozzarella and mushrooms which saved the day. I still don't think I can easily recommend the pasta sauce to people yet, until I can find a way to compensate for its sourish flavour. It also does not help that it does not have much actual tomato content, understandable given the relative high price of tomatoes.

Bacon Cheese Pizza

Sainsbury's recently lowered the price of their Basics mozzarella cheese balls to 30p, just in time for the start of the academic year. I had made a batch of bread dough earlier on in the week for bread to supplement my dinner, so I took the opportunity to make a pizza with the remainder of my dough, the leftover Basics pasta sauce I have, and the now-cheaper mozzarella cheese ball.

In recent times I have started craving for bacon, and while surfing the Net for related articles I suddenly recall the streaky bacon that I am so used to back home but have forgotten, having gotten used to back bacon being the norm here in the UK. The closest thing that the Basics range have are the middle bacon rashers, and not having tried these before and being informed by Wikipedia that these are a cross between streaky and back bacon, I thought I would give these a try.

As you can tell from the picture on the right, the rasher is made of two parts, the medallion hanging off which is usually part of the back bacon, and the rest of it, which you would usually find in streaky bacon. The only problem that I have with this is that they are expensive, at £1.99 for a 450g pack. By comparison, although not exactly the same class of product, a 670g pack of Basics cooking bacon will go for £1.52, although in exchange for a lower price you would end up with part rashers and a variety of other loose cuts of either streaky, back or middle bacon.

I'm hungry, so let's proceed. Take out your bread dough and lay it flat on a sheet of foil, which has been dusted with floor or spread with some oil, so that the dough will not stick while baking. Leave for 25 mins.

Add the toppings. Start with the pasta sauce, then the cheese, then whatever you wish to add to the pizza. Finish with Basics herb mix.

Cook in the oven at 225 degrees Celsius for about 30 minutes.

The only problem with this pizza was the pasta sauce, which we know all along to be rather inadequate. It also might have been a good idea to bake the base first partially before laying on the ingredients. Overall however, the fundamentals of this recipe are sound, and merit another attempt in future.

Description	Price per Unit	No. of servings	Trade-up Premium	Trade-up Benefits
Middle Bacon	£1.99	450g	+£0.01 for 225g	Streaky bacon instead of middle bacon

Pepperoni and Mushroom Pizza

Everybody likes pizza. Well most do. One could hardly go wrong with cheese, tomato, and a good Italian sausage. Generally however, the amount of effort and money spent creating the pizza I'm sharing with you today is probably not worth it. Sainsbury's and the other major supermarket chains would regularly sell brand name frozen pizzas at heavily discounted prices. While you would have obviously less control over what goes into the pizza, and by extension, what goes into your stomach, it would be more economical.

Having said that however, a few comments would have to be made. The tomato and cheese pizza cannot be eaten on its own, and you would have to top it up with other things to make a substantial meal. Otherwise, it would suffice for a snack.

There are other things worth noting however. Sainsbury's has reduced the pack size of their basics mushrooms and adjusted their price accordingly. The new packs go for 89p and come in sizes of 400g. Mushrooms seem a bit dirtier than they used to be, especially at the base, so make sure you wash thoroughly before use.

But by far the darling of this post, and possibly the entire Basics range is the Mozzarella ball. If memory serves, the mozzarella is made from Germany. Not that it matters though, it tastes absolutely creamy when eaten raw, and has a nice stringy pull when it is cooked. The only problem would be that there is enough mozzarella for two servings, and all of it has to be used within the same day. Still, at 47p, this is a bargain and would easily enliven your meal where used appropriately.

Description	Price per Unit	No. of servings	Trade-up Premium	Trade-up Benefits
Tomato and Cheese pizza	£0.75	100g	N/A	No accurate equivalent.
Mushrooms	£0.89 (£0.22 / 100g)	400g	+£0.12 / 100g (£0.87 for 250g)	More thoroughly washed mushrooms, easier portioned sizes
Mozzarella Ball	£0.47	125g	+£0.48 for 150g	Not known, but probably not much
Pepperoni	£1.29	100g	+£0.71	Thinner pepperoni slices made in Italy with better texture. Recommended.