Few dishes are as pleasant and hassle-free as a bowl of pasta helped along by a few glasses of wine. The beauty of serving pasta is that it is always easy to make and doesn't require hours in the kitchen. Most pasta additions and sauces are also fairly simple and the choices plentiful, just like pasta itself which comes in many different shapes and sizes.

We enjoy all types of pasta but generally find that screws, or Fusilli Massa em Espirais to give them their Italian name, tend to absorb the flavours of sauce ingredients best. Screws are also great in salads.

For today's dish we will marry the flavours of red pepper, red onion and smoked chicken with cashew nuts and mascarpone.

To serve four portions you need:

Ingredients

4 smoked chicken breasts, sliced thickly

2 red onions, peeled and sliced

2 large red pepper, sliced into strips

1 tub mascarpone cheese

2 tablespoons sour cream

100g coarsely crunched cashew nuts

1 cup coarsely chopped basil leaf

500g pasta screw

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 tablespoon butter

Method

To make the sauce, heat the oil and butter together.

Add the chopped onion and red pepper and fry over medium heat until it starts to soften.

Add the chicken breasts, mascarpone and sour cream and over low to medium heat, warm through then cover and set aside.

In a large pot of salted water cook the pasta according to instructions on the packet.

Drain, leaving a tablespoon or two of water behind.

Add the sauce to the pasta, stir lightly and warm through.

Stir in the basil and serve immediately in warm pasta bowls.

Wine recommendation

Lyngrove Platinum Pinotage 2009 – Stellenbosch – R134.00

Deep purple in colour, aromas of strawberry and plums follows onto a palate with balanced structure with spicy vanilla tones on the finish.

To order, email Wine Concepts.