Bring on winter favourites

Tucking up inside with a hot bowl of tasty soup, gorgeous gooey pasta or mouth-watering pizza is one of the good things in life during cold, wet days. Even better is that many of these winter favourites don’t take long to make, especially with a bit of forethought, and creative pantry shelf stocking. Here are some suggestions from Metropol.

Pizza

Keep some pizza bases in the freezer so you can whip one up whenever you want. Add all your favourite toppings, and if you have guests they can create their own. Olives, anchovies, salamis and such are popular toppings to have in stock. Make sure you’ve plenty of cheese to top it off. Grated cheese keeps well in the freezer too.

Pasta

This can be as simple or as complicated as you choose to make it. Fresh pasta is great, but it doesn’t hurt to keep a packet of dried spaghetti, fettucine or macaroni in the pantry. The hard part will be deciding how to dress it. A creamy sauce or a tomato one? Seafood, mushrooms, or a simple pesto? They all taste great.

Soups

Pumpkin soup is a quick and easy choice, especially paired with garlic or herb bread. Now is also the time for thick country-style chowders such as sweet corn, or seafood. Onions, garlic and vegetable stock are pantry staples for soup making, and it doesn’t hurt to have sour cream, cream cheese or full cream on hand either.