Pasta with a jerk and cream cheese sauce

It's probably not true for everyone, but for me, having a food blog is partly about showcasing pretty pictures and practicing writing, rarely do I consider the recipes. This is a strange thing to admit, I know, but the recipes just seem to be incidental. Lately, though, I've found myself wanting to share some tidbits with you, things I've discovered and combinations that have worked well. This post is about the recipe more than anything else. No witty banter (I do try), and definitely no mouthwatering photographs. Instead, a technique with two ingredients I have been using regularly lately.

When making pasta sauces, I've had some success with combining strong flavoured seasonings and sauces with cream cheese, namely Philadelphia. I used it with the spot prawn recipe I recently blogged, (here) and again with this pasta dish above, where I combined a very spicy and tangy bottled jerk sauce with Philadelphia and pork. The cream cheese really mellows and tempers the fiery sauce, which would be far too potent on its own for a pasta, generally being used as a marinade. It also creates a creamy, sauce-like texture, especially when combined with a little pasta water. This recipe is a true 'come home to an almost empty fridge' deal, a store cupboard stand by if you like, providing you have some pork in your freezer and cream cheese in your fridge, (really, that stuff keeps for ages). We ate this amidst a hazy fog of jet lag on Monday night, no shopping required.

Recipe : Pasta with pork, jerk sauce and cream cheese.

Pasta for 2

1 tsp oil and 1 tsp butter

1/2 lb pork loin, sliced thinly

1 onion, chopped finely

1 clove garlic, chopped finely

6 sun dried tomatoes, halved

2 tbsp cream cheese

1.5 tbsp fiery jerk seasoning

Heat the oil and butter in a pan over medium heat and add the pork. Stir fry until the pork is almost cooked.

Add the onion, garlic and tomatoes and reduce heat to low - medium.

Cook, stirring occasionally, until the tomatoes are slightly wilted and the onion soft.

Add the cream cheese and jerk seasoning, stir well and reduce the heat to very low.

Meanwhile, cook the spaghetti until almost done in a large pan of boiling salted water, drain, reserving about 1 tbsp of the cooking water.

Add the pasta and cooking water to the pork mixture and turn the heat up to medium. Stir everything well, add a little bit more butter if required and cook for a few moments.

Serve, sprinkled with a little freshly ground black pepper if you like and maybe a light dusting of paprika.