Jamie Oliver's 30 Minute Meals - Pregnant Jools's Pasta

The first time I had had consciously had chicory was in the salad in Jamie Oliver's 'Killer Jerk Chicken' menu. Unfortunately Waitrose (get me!) only sold them in packs of two, so we decided to do something else to use the second one up. As the Mrs would be cooking, we went for something quite simple looking, as she has the Boy-let to keep an eye on during the day, when I would be at work, and we both fancied something quick.

I was eventually called through to the kitchen to find that it looked like a bomb had gone off in the kitchen. I remembered the other half had acted as an assistant while I prepared the chicken - it really looks like these recipes are lot easier if there are two of you on hand. The Mrs finished 'Pregnant Jools's Pasta, Crunchy Chicory & Watercress Salad & Little Frangipane Tarts in about 40 minutes. I wrote a haiku to describe our feelings toward the menu:

Pregnant Jools's pasta

Massive let down

Jamie write alone next time

The best way to decribe the menu would be: A too-spicy (as in, the pasta was WAY too spicy) sweet and sour pasta. With sausage meat. Sweet and Sour should be served with rice. Not pasta, or sausagemeat. My better half seems to think it might be related to our cheap balsamic, but I think there is more to the faults of the dish than this. The salad was also disappointing. I had really enjoyed the chicory with the chicken, but it just didn't work here. I think its because the leaves were left whole, and were too bitter in large chunks, but it might have been the dressing. The Frangipane tarts were the highlight of the meal, but were nothing special - like a large jam tart.

I am quite a big fan of Jamie Oliver, and desperately wanted to like this, but it was just...crap. 

Jamie's 30 minute Meals @ Amazon