Restaurant review: Palatino, Old Street, east London

A couple of weeks ago my favourite internet pals and I popped along to Palatino for Hannah's birthday. The reason she picked that place? The £25 deal for unlimited pasta for two hours on a Saturday. She didn't have to ask us twice to attend!

Within walking distance from the Barbican and not as close to Old Street station as it says on the website, the restaurant is in a rather obscure location in the city. It's not hard to find but it's not really surrounded by much so it feels like you have to to hunt it down. You can have the option of choosing to add unlimited prosecco for £14 per person for 90 minutes. We decided to give this a miss this time.

So what pasta can you choose from? Anything from the Primo section of the menu. This includes cacio e pepe, ravioli di zucca, bombolotti romanesco, anchovy and breadcrumbs, spaghetti alla vongole, veal rigatoni and a pasta of the day. They are more than willing to veganise any dish. My favourites included the carbonara which was the special and the delicious rigatoni. The portions looked small but in reality were great sizes for sharing. We all tucked in quite happily!

Service was a bit slow and they wasn't too forthcoming in offering you the chance to order more pasta dishes. It took quite a while before someone even took our drinks order. Luckily we were starting to get a bit full so we didn't mind the waiting. But I can imagine it will get annoying really  quick if you're still hungry. I loved the vibe of the restaurant, it had a great mix of people and lovely floor to ceiling windows, letting the winter sun in. I'm not sure I'd go back but I do think it's a great deal for £25 and I felt like I completely got my money's worth. There are just so many other different places to try in London!

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#52 recipes: Recipes 27-31

Pondicherry toast from Meera Sodha's Guardian column
I'm sure I've mentioned this before but Meera is one of my all-time favourite cookbook writers and I absolutely adore her weekly Guardian vegan column. I don't always make the recipes vegan as don't often have the right ingredients in the house but they're always made vegetarian. This was really simple to make and made a great weekend breakfast. I enjoyed it with lashings of ketchup. I could easily have eaten another round of it.

Balsamic onion focaccia from Mary Berry's Baking Bible
I have a soft spot for Mary Berry but sometimes I feel she just doesn't come up with the goods. This focaccia was really tasty and pretty straight forward to follow. But it didn't taste like focaccia. There was something missing which I can't put my finger on. I'm not sure it's a recipe I'll attempt again.

Tofu banh mi from Meera Sodha's Guardian column
Another Meera recipe! Tofu is an ingredient that I struggle with. I'm not a massive fan so I'm always looking for ways to help jazz it up. This was absolutely delicious and my favourite thing I've made for the column, We've had it twice so far which is the ultimate praise as I rarely like to cook the same thing twice unless it is for lunches. The pickled carrots and courgettes really make it. I can't seem to find my rubbish iPhone snap of this but you can see it on my highlights on my Instagram. Same with the below!

Korean-inspired tofu lettuce cups by Gimme Some Oven
This was made on a whim after we had so much tofu still left over from the above and I had raided the local Asian supermarket and finally found some gochujang. This felt really light, perfect for the warmer months. It wasn't that exciting which is a shame as usually I love stuff with Korean chilli paste in. Not one I'm in a hurry to make again.

Confit Chicken from Alison Roman's NYT cooking column
Ah Alison! My current obsession. I love the way she writes and I love how she takes really simple ingredients and turns them into something special. I could watch her on Youtube for hours. I made this one Sunday as a hands-off early dinner for some friends. Such a tasty feast with such succulent and tender chicken. A total weekend winner! The leftover oil is fab to fry eggs the next day for breakfast or roast potatoes. It keeps for a few days in the fridges.

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Five ways I'm trying to cut down on food waste

1. Freeze vegetables/fruit in portions
I have every intention of using up my vegetable box but things get in the way and it turns out I'm only home twice that week. As a result my vegetables are left languishing in the back of the fridge. I have now gotten into the habit once a week to look through my fridge and decide which veg is looking a bit sad. I make sure to chop them up and freeze them in useable bags to be used at a later date. I always bag them up in portions so I can use them in one go.  Root vegetables tend to go a bit watery but they last longer in the fridge so I don't tend to freeze these. I always freeze slices of lemons and limes as they work great for G&T's when you have guests over. Butter, milk and bread are always great to be frozen and I do this regularly.

2. Make stale bread into breadcrumbs
We tend to treat ourselves a nice loaf of bread for the weekend as our go-to breakfast is poached eggs on toast. But as we never eat bread during the week it starts to go mouldy. Now I either freeze it in slicers or I pop it in the food processor to make it into breadcrumbs. I freeze these and use them as toppings for various things such as gratins and cauliflower cheese. My New Years resolution next year is to start getting into making my own bread so I never have to buy a loaf from the supermarket again.

3. Freeze sauces in ice cube trays
We always have a jar of pesto or curry paste in the larder but it doesn't always get used up in time before it went off. In a household of two, unless you use it everyday you're never going to use up a whole jar within three days. So I started freezing it in ice cube trays as soon as I opened it. I find three cubes of each tends to be enough when I am using them for dinner. This also works well with fresh herbs - just make sure you add some water. If you freeze rosemary this makes a good gin garnish.

4. Don't follow best before dates
Before I moved out from home I was a stickler for best before dates. I would throw something away on the day it had printed because I didn't think it could be consumed anymore. Not only is this incredibly wasteful but also very expensive! Now I go by looks and smell. Most food have at least a couple more days left on them past the best-before-date. You just have to use your common sense. Most veg which looks a little sorry for itself perks up in a soup or roasted.

5. Batch cook for the week and freeze
If I know I'm going to have a busy week but got a full fridge, I make sure I cook up quite a few different meals to use up all the food when I have the time. Mostly on a Sunday afternoon. I either pop them in the fridge for lunches throughout the week or freeze them for dinner for the rest of the week.

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