John WoodheadWE have a friend called Mimmo who has a place here in Almerimar. He was born in the south of Italy and used to run a restaurant in Manchester for many years. A few years ago he gave us a recipe for one of his favourite dishes that he can prepare quickly when he has just arrived in Almerimar or returned to Manchester.
It is Penne Amatriciana but in Almerimar it is known as Mimmo’s pasta. It is one of the quickest and most tasty meals I am able to cook. You can see the recipe at the bottom of this article.
The second story about Mimmo is that he was out with friends eating at one of the chiringuitos close to the beach here in Almerimar. The restaurant served pizza amongst other things.
When the group got to ordering dessert they could not find something on the menu that they fancied. Mimmo asked whether the people he was eating with had ever tried a dessert pizza.
They all said no and after asking the permission of the owners of the chiringuito Mimmo went into the kitchen and prepared one. The dessert pizza was so well received it is now available on the dessert menu in the chiringuito. You can see the recipe at the bottom of this article.
The third part of this story is about an event we attended a couple of years ago in Almerimar. As most people probably know Almería is famous for the amount of plastic greenhouses that you can see in the province (even though they cover around 2% of the land here).
The El Ejido area just inland from Almerimar is probably the centre of the Almería greenhouse industry. For this reason the local council organised an event to promote the local produce a couple of years ago.
As part of the event they produced an excellent small booklet in Spanish and German (not English for some reason) to give away free to people who attended the event.
I have just noticed that the booklet is still available to download here on the town hall website. If you like recipes that consist mainly of vegetables and fruit then this booklet might be of interest to you.
Penne Amatriciana, aka Mimmo’s pasta (serves 4)
Preparation: 10 minutes
Cooking: 20 minutes
500g penne pasta
4 rashers bacon (finely sliced)
2×400 cans plumb tomatoes
1 hot chilli/dry
4 tablespoons olive oil
2 cloves garlic
50g single cream (as much as you fancy until the sauce looks good to you)
parmesan cheese to serve
METHOD
Bring a large pan of boiling water to the boil and cook the pasta according to the instructions on pack.
Warm the oil in a large frying pan over a medium heat. Add garlic, chilli and finely sliced bacon and cook until the bacon is crispy. Then add tomatoes, season and cook for 10 minutes on a medium heat.
When the pasta is cooked drain and add to the sauce. Mix well then add cream and stir for one minute. Serve immediately. Add parmesan cheese if desired.
VARIATIONS
Just about all the golfers in Almerimar know about Mimmo’s pasta and have their own variations of it. We add more chilli and skip the cream. This tends to be more like an arrabiata. We then serve it it with a green salad and some greek yoghurt.
Mimmo’s Pizza Dolce (serves 4/6 portions)
1 pizza base (frozen)
2 slices of pineapple ( cubed)
1 banana (sliced)
8 strawberries (sliced)
1 fresh mango (sliced)
12 seedless grapes (cut in half)
3 tablespoons of brown sugar
4 tablespoons of Ron Miel
METHOD
Arrange fruit on the frozen pizza base using your artistic knowledge.
Then sprinkle the brown sugar over the fruit. Then bake in a very hot oven for 20 minutes
Before serving pour the Ron Miel over the fruit.
