Apple, Walnut and Blue Cheese Pasta!

A double bill today! Whoop! (Read: slight backlog that I'm only just dealing with...) But this is a really tasty sauce, absolutely chock-full of flavour, mixing strong cheesy flavours with the sweeter tang of apple.

I'd got a bit bored of making pasta sauces that were centred around using tomato (oh, irony, serving with a tomato...) and so I decided to try and think outside the box and made something with apples instead. It worked really well, and can be varied depending on the kind of pasta etc that you've got. I used Spinach and Ricotta tortellini with strong cheese in the sauce, as that kind of pasta is a bit more neutral-tasting, but equally you could leave out the cheese from the sauce and use a stronger-tasting filled pasta, such as a Walnut and Gorgonzola variety from Sainsbury's, which is delicious. Equally, gorgonzola or a similar strong cheese would work in place of the blue cheese I used in the sauce.

Ingredients (for 3);

• 2 packs Spinach & Ricotta tortellini
• 200ml cider
• 3 tablespoons creme fraiche
• 2 Royal Gala apples
• 50g walnuts
• Pinch powdered ginger
• Pinch powdered cinnamon
• 50g blue cheese
• Olive oil

Alright folks...let's cook;

1. Chop the apples into relatively small chunks. Place in a bowl of water to prevent brownage.
2. Heat the olive oil in a high-sided frying pan, and add the apple when hot.
3. Add the ginger/cinnamon to the apples, and fry them off for a couple of minutes.
4. Pour the cider in with the apples.
5. Take the pan off the heat, then add the creme fraiche. Stir it all through, before putting back on the hob. 
6. Once that comes up to simmering point, turn the heat down a little and leave it to reduce for a bit. 
7. Now for the anger management bit - get your walnuts, put them in a bag, do it up tight and hit them with a rolling pin. You don't want massive great bits of walnut in the sauce, better to break them up a bit.
8. Meanwhile, bring a saucepan full of salted water up to the boil and chuck in the pasta. This should only take about 5 minutes if you're using filled pasta. 
9. While the pasta's cooking, crumble the cheese into the sauce and stir it through until it's melted in to make a deliciously cheesy mess. Add your pulverised walnuts at the same time.
10. Once the pasta's done, drain it, then mix everything together, sauce and all. Then it's just a case of nomming down.