Chef and activist Jack Monroe often shares her amazing recipes on Twitter that demonstrate how to make a meal for £1 or under. One recipe, in particular, got huge attention when it was revealed she made it for just 46p a serving.
The meal which was made in one pan included Polish sausages, onion, carrot, kale and pasta with cheese and black pepper added to the dish at the end. Jack estimated that it cost just 46p to make.
Jack tweeted: "One pan, 15-minute pasta in chicken stock with smoked Polish sausage, chickpeas, onion, carrot, kale, conchiglie pasta and a smattering of cheese and black pepper. Costings to follow shortly - we want to eat it first - but it’ll be under £1 for sure. Always is, innit."
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I'm always up for a cooking challenge or making a mess in my kitchen so when work asked me to make my own version of the 46p pasta dish, I jumped at the chance. After all, how bad could it go?
The first hurdle was to get the ingredients in, which as I was stuck at home with Covid, proved to be a bit tricky. Luckily, Asda came through for me by substituting any of the ingredients for something I didn't need which meant we were off to a good start.
I did have to make two changes to the recipe immediately as I'm vegetarian and Jack had suggested using Polish sausage. I also left out the carrot because I although I love most vegetables, I draw the line at carrots. It wouldn't have added much to the recipes in terms of cost to chuck it in but I suspect making this meal veggie will make it less than 45p a head.
Jack suggested making the meal in one pan that should take 45 minutes on the oven top and 15 minutes on gas. This is where I potentially made a mistake as my ADHD means that I'm not the best at math so when I saw measurements, I confidently chucked everything into the pan while guestimating it - a rookie mistake.
At this stage, my housemate wandered into the kitchen and was informed that not only would I 'be cleaning this up later' but I would also need a taste test victim - I mean volunteer.
First up was adding the stock cube water to the pan to get the pasta going. I'm not used to one-pan meals so it felt a bit weird to just go absolutely wild throwing everything into it. I soon got into it though and it felt refreshing not to dirty every pan I own in order to make one meal.
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I then left it to simmer away while I went back to work and checked back occasionally to stir it. At about the ten or fifteen-minute mark, a really nice smell began to waft from the kitchen and the pasta appeared to be softening. As I normally fry or prepare the non-pasta ingredients separately, I was really pleased to have less work to do and I didn't need to stand over it in case of house fires. It also felt great to know there would be minimal washing up to do.
So when it came time for the taste test, Jack had suggested adding cheese and black pepper to the mix. I don't have to be told twice to add cheese to anything edible so I started to grate a fresh block ready to go. It was taste testing time.
I was really surprised as the pasta was actually lovely and flavourful although I could see how the addition of a sausage - even a veggie one would have absolutely made it. The chickpeas also made the meal feel really filling although I had forgotten that kale reduces so could have done with more.
Sadly, I missed the mark with the costings although that was down to me choosing the wrong chickpeas - sorry Jack. It can be done for the 46p but mine ended up at 92p each which in today's climate is still not bad going. I realised far too late that Jack had done very precise calculations whereas I just divided what I had bought into three for each serving.
I spent 85p on Napolina Chickpeas in water, 7p on an onion, 60p on curly kale, 55p on stock cubes and a further 70p on pasta for this dish. It could have potentially been cheaper if I had been able to shop around a bit more but Jack spent almost identically to me at Asda.
It's actually been a refreshing change rather than a challenge to make this meal. I'm even more determined to make another one of Jack's meals and I will stick closely to the ingredients next time to see just how cheap I can make it. Also, I consider it a win that I managed to make it through without even one kitchen fire - success.
