The Three C's Pasta Recipe: Cheese, Cranberries and Coconut

I know pasta isn't the healthiest food choice ever, but sometimes you just need a quick and easy bowl of deliciousness. For me, that bowl of deliciousness is pasta. Combine that with my favourite ingredients and I'm in foodie heaven.

Now, when it comes to cheese, there's no way I'm only including one type, hence this recipe contains both cottage and cheddar cheese. However, it doesn't only enhance the flavour. The cottage cheese makes for a thicker pasta sauce while the cheddar maintains that stringy cheese texture between the pasta bits.

As for the coconut, except for its many health benefits that help to overshadow some of the unhealthy parts of a pasta dish, the tinge of coconut taste it brings with it, makes for the perfect flavour combination.

Now, I can imagine what you were thinking when you read cranberries, probably something like eew, why, interesting, uhhm... These were the thoughts going through my mind when someone told me how good they were on pizza. But I tried it nonetheless and never again did I make pizza without it. There's just something about its sweetness mixing with the savoury cheese that lead your taste buds into happy dancing. I just had to incorporate this taste into pasta, so here it is!

Ingredients

400g pasta

1 tbsp vegetable oil

250g bacon bits

1 medium avocado

1 cup coconut milk

300g cottage cheese

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp Italian herbs

1 tbsp dried oregano/origanum 

1 cup dried cranberries

150g cheddar cheese

Recipe makes 4-6 servings.

Method

1. Cook the pasta according to the instructions on the packaging.

2. While the pasta is cooking, place the oil in a small frying pan over high heat and add the bacon once its hot. Cook until slightly browned and remove from heat.

 

3. Make the pasta sauce by blending together the avocado, coconut milk, cottage cheese, salt, Italian herbs and oregano/origanum.

4. Once the pasta is cooked, drain it and then add the bacon and cranberries.

5. Place the pasta back on low heat to allow the cranberries to soften a bit.

6. After about 2 mins, add the pasta sauce and mix it in well.

7. Add in the cheddar and keep mixing on low heat until it is completely melted.

8. Serve hot and enjoy!