The Mad Scientist's Debonair Chicken, Dried Tomato and Spinach Pasta

This recipe is loosely based on a marvellous risotto that I had many years ago. I thought the combination of chicken, spinach and dried tomato was delicious.

This version uses pasta, chicken mince, sundried tomatoes, frozen chopped spinach, chopped onions, garlic and chill and a jar of Italian-flavoured pasta sauce.

The sundried tomatoes, onion and spices were coarsely chopped together in a food processor and then added to the chicken mince in a wok.

Once the chicken mince was cooked through the defrosted spinach was added.

Lastly the pasta sauce was added and the mixture left to simmer until suitably warmed through.

Serve in individual bowls and place a generous dollop of the sauce on top of the cooked pasta.

The Mad Scientist's Classic Römertopf Christmas Turkey

When you get home from singing at Midnight Mass at about 03:00, food is not the first thing on your mind, and the Mad Scientist usually likes to have a fairly quiet Christmas Day, eating the traditional Christmas feast in the evening. In Australia the old English traditions of roast turkey with vegetables followed by plum pudding and custard are still nobly "hanging in there" despite the often hot weather and an increasing predilection for "putting another prawn on the barbie"!

This is the Mad Scientist's simple version of roast turkey with vegetables. Take one boneless turkey roast (available in the supermarket freezer), one packet of frozen vegetables, one onion, some chopped potatoes and two jars of apple, balsamic and cinnamon chutney.

Place the chutney, onion, potatoes and turkey in the bottom of the pre-soaked Römertopf and then place the frozen vegetables on top.

Cook in a 180 degree Celsius oven until happily bubbling and you are fairly sure that the turkey is cooked through.

Place the potatoes and onion in one serving bowl and the remaining vegetables in another bowl.

Slice the turkey thinly and serve with the two types of vegetables (and have the other two serving bowls handy for those who might like seconds). Place some of the exquisite gravy (which formed naturally in the bottom of the Römertopf during cooking) on top of the turkey and place the remainder in a serving vessel (the Mad Scientist did not have a gravy boat handy so used a trusty Ikea bowl).

This was a wonderful combination of flavours, tender succulent turkey and vegetables just bursting with character. Long live the traditional Christmas roast!