Tagliatelle with Savoy Cabbage

I don't think I should be trusted to do the food shopping.  I always come back with things that weren't on the list.  If they were on the list I'll probably have bought too many of them.  However, I'm a sucker for an offer but not to the extent that I'd buy two chickens for £5.  I dread to think what kind of a life those two birds would have had.

It's not just offers in supermarkets that I struggle with.  I often shop at Leeds Kirkgate Market and when faced with food sold by weight I go to pieces.  I'd like to blame my age and the supermarket boom for my blind spot for weight.  I have no idea what 5lb of carrots look like.

The worst thing is when the shopping list says something like "veg".  What type and in what quantity?  This leaves me with a lot of license for choosing ingredients but if I get carried away we end up wondering what to cook.

Tonight's menu is born out of veg being on a shopping list.  I found a gem of a savoy cabbage being sold for pence on the market and duly bought it.  Having got it home I discovered that it was a tad bigger that I initially thought.  In fact, we'll be eating it for days, tant pis.

To get the ball* rolling, we're having a great little pasta dish that we unearthed the last time we had too much cabbage to eat.  Fry some cabbage and leek in butter until soft, along with some thyme.  Pour on some cream and cheese** and mix with whatever pasta shapes you have to hand.

*cabbage
**tonight we have port soaked Stilton left over from Christmas