Not just another pasta sauce: A recipe

I'm back in my cooking phase. The kitchen is busy again. And the weather is just wonderful right now. It's the onset of a beautiful, cold, windy HK winter. And I am sitting at my window listening to "From London With Love" and feeling happy, and content!

On evenings like this, a bowl of hot aglio olio spaghetti accompanied with some steaming spicy sauce is all that's needed to spell perfection.

Ingredients 

1 big pink onion, sliced in half moons

3 medium sized tomatoes, de-skinned and pulped

2 bell peppers, preferably in different colours, cut into long strips 

4 garlic cloves, chopped

2 dried red chillies

Mushrooms (optional, for vegetarian preparation)

4-6 chicken sausages (optional)

Salt 

Pepper

Oregano

Parsley

Red chilli powder

Chilli flakes

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 teaspoon butter

1/2 cup red wine (optional)

Prep

On a frying pan, heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil on high heat

Once the oil is hot, add the sausages, if they spit and crackle reduce the heat

Brown the sausages on all sides - don't sear, just brown

Once done, take sausages off the pan

Turn the heat up and add the onions and bell peppers

Sear them till slightly blackened

Add salt and garlic, mix well

Once the onions are soft and start browning, add the red wine 

At medium high heat, combine well and let simmer till wine is reduced by half

Add the tomato pulp and mix well with the sauce

Add pepper, chilli flakes, oregano and chilli powder

Mix well and add the sausages back in

Cover with a lid and let simmer for about 20 minutes

Depending on your taste and preference, you can either take it off the heat when it is still slightly runny or when the sauce is nice and thick.

And your pasta accompaniment is ready! 

Now just pour out a glass of the same wine used in the sauce, serve up a big bowl of paste, take a seat by the window and let out a big sigh of content! :D

And by the way, the leftover sauce can be used over the next few days in sandwiches, as a dip, a snack and in Maggi!!

After work snack attack

Pasta in mushroom sauce: A recipe

What's been cooking?

 

Well, nothing much! Just emerging from a crazy work schedule (which involved eating Korean food in Korea!!), and all set to dive into more of the crazies starting next week. Been keeping the cooking, and definitely the experimenting, to the minimum. The husband's been busier than me and lets accept it, it's really not much fun cooking for one every single day. Thank god for online delivery websites - of which there are aplenty in the 'Kong.

 

Yesterday I made wheat pasta in mushroom sauce. It was fun to make and yum to eat. Here's the recipe for all of you pasta lovers out there!

 

Ingredients -

1. 2 packets mushroom
2. 1 big capsicum 
3. 1 1/2 tomatoes
4. 1 big onion, finely chopped
5. 1 zucchini, thinly cut round slices
6. 7-8 baby corn, cut into small chunks
7. 1 packet rigatoni semolina pasta
8. Salt, pepper, chilli flakes, oregano, basil 
9. 1 tablespoon olive oil
10. 1 cup water 
11. 1 teaspoon butter 
12. Some feta cheese/ parmesan flakes/ grated cheese

Prep -

Boil and drain the pasta as per instructions. Reserve some of the pasta water.

Cut the mushrooms, capsicum and tomato into chunks, add 1 cup water and give it a whir in the blender till it has a purée like consistency 

In a pan, heat the oil and add onions. Sauté. 

Once onions are slightly pinkish, add zucchini, baby corn and all the seasoning 

After zucchini has become slightly soft, add the purée. 

Bring it to a boil adding some of the pasta water if the sauce is too thick 

 

 

Just before adding the pasta, pop in some cheese (but not too much as the pasta water would already make it slightly creamy) and 1 teaspoon butter. Mix well. 

Add the pasta and coat it well with the sauce, cook for 2-3 minutes. 

Serve.

Make sure you enjoy the thick, creamy chunky sauce! :D

Recipe: Spaghetti in pink yogurt sauce

I really do enjoy my pasta. And if it's spaghetti, I'm trying it. What I don't like is the whole 'unhealthy' aspect of eating pasta. But I do think whole wheat spaghetti and a thick yogurt based sauce go a long way in making it less unhealthy!

Here's how I made a rich and hearty bowl of pasta with 'pink' sauce. No cream, no cheese!

Ingredients
Broccoli florets
2 big tomatoes, cubed
1 zucchini
1 large bellpepper
Garlic slivers
1 big sliced onions
Salt
Pepper
Italian herbs - dried parsley, dried basil, dried oregano
Chilli flakes and paprika
1/2 packet of whole wheat spaghetti
Olive oil
4 tablespoons of yogurt - thicker the better. I used Nestle's Greek Yogurt

Prep
Fill the saucepan you would use to boil your pasta with water and bring to a boil
Once on a rolling boil, add the broccoli florets to blanche them
After about 3-4 minutes, take out the broccoli using a ladle
Add in the pasta to the boiling water and make as per instructions on the packet. Make sure to cook pasta al dente
While straining the pasta, reserve the water and keep separately

In a separate wok, heat the olive oil and add in the garlic slivers and sliced onion. On medium heat, let the onions and garlic cook till they start changing colour. Stir frequently so it doesn't burn.
Add in the bell pepper once the onions are soft and golden in colour.
On medium heat, let the bell pepper cook till it's slightly soft
Add zucchini, stir frequently till it changes colour and cooks through on low heat
Add in the tomatoes along with their juice
Add salt, pepper and the herbs, mix well and cover for 3-4 minutes on medium heat
Once the tomatoes cook down, add 4 tablespoons of yogurt and mix well
Adjust the consistency as per your liking - just make sure you use the reserved pasta water to adjust the sauce. It will add flavour to the sauce. 
Your 'pink' sauce for the pasta is ready!
Stir in chilli flakes and paprika

Add in the pasta and mix well so that the sauce coats every single spaghetti string

Your pasta's ready for you to dig in!

You can add in any other vegetables or meat as you like to this super flavorful sauce. I added in sausages since they were lying around in the fridge. For an extra touch of richness, you can add 1/2 tablespoon of butter and sprinkle with grated parmesan before serving.

Hope you enjoy your bowl of spicy and guilt-free pasta! :)

Recipe inside: Pasta with corn

I haven't got some cooking done in a while now and the kitchen seems to be beckoning. So yesterday, I decided to get some grocery shopping done and put together a meal. Infact, like I was telling the husband, it was one of those rare days when I was feeling very efficient - bought groceries on the way back from work, set the house straight, cooked a meal, finished off some work work and went to sleep before 11pm too!

The fridge was full of drying vegetables bought two weeks back while the family was in town and it was time to put them to good use. On the menu was angel hair pasta with spicy aubergine topped with lemon pepper corn.

Recipe:

Lemon pepper corn

Ingredients:

• Corn kernels
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• Juice of 1 small lemon or 1/2 a lime
• Salt
• Pinch of nutmeg powder
• Chilli flakes
• Oregano
• Pepper
• Basil
• Parsley
• Ketchup

To make:

• Heat olive oil on a frying pan and add the herbs (oregano, chilli flakes, basil, parsley) to the hot oil for a slightly smoked flavour
• Stir for 5-10 seconds and add in the corn kernels
  
• Mix the kernels well with the herbs, add salt and nutmeg powder
• Once the corn starts turning golden, cover the pan with a lid and let cook for 2-3 minutes, uncover and stir occasionally.
• Uncover it and pierce with a fork to see if it's slightly mushy and juicy inside, the corn should have also let off some water. Don't drain the water.
• Add some ketchup for a slightly thick consistency and for added flavour. Mix well.
  
• Add lemon juice just before turning off the heat and stir.
• Your spicy, juicy, lemon pepper corn is ready in less than 20 minutes!
  

Husband's rating: 4/5
My rating: 3.75/5

Hope you like the corn recipe. I would love to know how it turns out if you do make it... Angel hair aubergine pasta recipe coming up in the next post!