The local-style Hawaiian Macaroni Salad is a quick and easy cold pasta salad recipe which uses lots of mayonnaise and easily customizable with favorite mix-ins. It is a staple of a typical Hawaii-style plate lunch and honestly, so simple to make that no specific instructions are needed at all. Just a few guidelines and you are good to go! Enjoy!
Learn the perfect way to make mac n cheese recipe. It is go-ey. It is creamy. It is as easy as whipping up any other pasta dish. Today's version is loaded with good stuff like spinach and has got nice tangyness from chopped sun dried tomatoes. Add anything from roasted veggies to thai curry paste as flavoring and trust me, you have got THE best comfort food ever known to mankind! :-)
Pasta Lovers, Rejoice. I think today's recipe will make your mouths water (just like mine) and urge you to go for a second serving. I was so mighty happy with the results that I just couldn't wait to share it with you all.
This spicy pasta was made for a long lost childhood friend, whom I was meeting after many years. It was pure fun to catch up what we had missed all this while and a foodie herself, the conversation inadvertently moved on to cuisines we tried, recipes (her latest find - Spaghetti carbonara with Quorn) and favorite restaurants in town etc etc. Out of the blue, she exclaims"Are you still a vegetarian?" quite surprised. Her expression was quite remarkable as if I have had survived through a huge tornedo. "Yes!" I replied firmly, quite annoyed at the stern objectivity of the question.
The tiff between the likes of vegetarians and non vegetarians is age old. The meat lovers wonder what do vegetarians eat and we wonder how can they simply relish food which involves butchering an innocent animal. So many times I have been asked politely and directly if I was a vegetarian by choice or did someone force me into it. I find that question very amusing as I never asked them the same question. It is just the way I am I say to avoid any further inquiries. If they really persist, irritated ofcourse I casually give the blog links of mine and a bunch of others to prove my point that we, vegetarians indeed eat delicious, healthy food with pleasure and relish them without any guilt. :-)
In the beginning of my post, I promised to share my pasta experiment of mine. Haven't I? Without further ranting about veg vs non-veg ( which can just go-on), let just dive into its details, so that you can make some too. Shall we?
Thanksgiving is around the corner. Probably you can make some harissa pasta for your vegetarian friends. The vegetables can be roasted well in advance and stored in refrigerator. On the day, all you have to do is cook pasta, toss these vegetables and capers in olive oil and Serve! Enjoy.
Penne with Harissa Roasted Cauliflower, Tomatoes, Carrot Strips and Capers
Make Time: 45 mins
Serves 3 to 4
Ingredients:
1/2 pound dried penne pasta (or any other pasta)
2 tbsp harissa paste
1/2 cup olive oil
1/2 tsp black pepper powder
salt - to taste
1-2 tbsp of pickled capers, drained
1 cup cut cauliflower
2 red bell peppers, deseeded and cut into strips
2 tomatoes, chopped
1 carrot, peeled, cut into thin strips
chopped coriander leaves
Preparation:
In a small bowl, whisk together harissa paste, 1/4 cup of olive oil, salt and black pepper powder. Keep aside.
Preheat oven to 180 C or 400 F. On a baking sheet, spread cauliflower florets, bell peppers, carrot strips, chopped tomatoes and corainder leaves. Top with the harissa dressing and toss so that the veggies are evenly coated. Bake for about 25 to 30 mins until they lightly crispy.
Cook pasta in lots of salted boiling water as per package instructions or until al dente.
Heat few tbsp of olive oil in pan and toss together roasted veggies, capers with penne. Adjust seasoning with salt and pepper. If you want to increase the heat, optionally add little harissa to pasta. Cook for 4 to 5 mins. Serve and garnish with fresh herbs and cheese (if you wish to).
[Updated - 24th November 2103] - On a special request from my little sister, I made a few boxes of this pasta for her family. :-) Tried the same recipe with Farfalle (bow-tie pasta) as well (pic of the left) and it turned out great.
This is Recipe 64 added to 2013 Recipe Archive. Check out the rest of the recipes too.
This post should have been published few days ago. But, you know Life. It gets busier when one least expects it and now I have jotted down so many things in my "to-do-list" that I have stopped frantically checking it for every few minutes. I took a deep breath, closed everything else and sat down to - write about my absolute favorite way to make pesto, not in a food processor but the old way, in a mortar and pestle. :-)
Today's recipe, my friends is a winsome tribute for a lazy or super-busy days. Cooking pasta is the only time consuming part in this super simple delightful pasta dish. :-)
Lots of raw, fresh vegetables along with a smooth, creamy dressing and of course noodles is what makes this salad sumptuous and a meal in itself. This is one of the recipes I bookmarked when I was subscribed to Vegetarian Times magazine while in US. I love those stash of old magazines so much that I got them along with me back to India. Every now and then, I flip through them for inspiration on what to try out and today's recipe is a result of one such browsings!
“Life is a combination of magic and pasta.” Federico Fellini
..and I wanted to make some of my own pasta for a really long time, though a box of dried penne, spaghetti or farfalle is a beloved staple in my pantry. I love them so much that every time I watch a food or travel-based show based on Italy, I imagine myself rolling out a sheet of dough and making long pasta ribbons out of it. Such was my craziness! After reading quite a few blog posts on the internet and flipping through Mark Bittman's book - How to Cook Everything Vegetarian cover to cover, last weekend I ventured into the kitchen to make atleast two kinds of fresh pasta. By the end of the day I was super thrilled with the fantastic results. Here I am sharing the first batch of pasta I made - Orecchiette, the easy way. Enjoy!
Christmas is over and there are just 4 days for 2012 to end. Its simply amazing how fast the time has flown by. This year has certainly brought many good memories, sprang up some unexpected surprises and few bad memories which I wish to completely forget and pray they never ever happen again.
“Tomorrow, is the first blank page of a 365 page book. Write a good one.” ~ Brad Paisley
Come early January and its again the time where we come up with our New Year resolutions. Its the sudden burst of motivation and excitement that a new year bestows upon us. A "New Year Resolution" is notoriously well-known to be short-lived where its soon forgotten within first few weeks and the guilt of it starts to set in soon after But, I think its imperative to be more realistic & flexible while choosing the "right" resolutions. Identify the hardships that you are likely to face and have a good, feasible plan to counter them. Most importantly, have fun while you are at it, in whatever you decide to do. It normally takes 21 days for a person to get habituated to anything. Take a day at a time and don't be hard on yourself.
2012 has taught me one thing for sure, that life is too short to be taken seriously and to brood upon, when my dad met with a fatal accident & when a very dear one got diagnosed with breast cancer. Life was perfect one day and the very next day everything was a mess!
“In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about life: it goes on.” ~ Robert Frost
Pasta with Chickpeas, herbs, garlic and chillies.
“We will open the book. Its pages are blank. We are going to put words on them ourselves. The book is called Opportunity and its first chapter is New Year's Day.” ~ Edith Lovejoy Pierce
ingredients for the garlic-chilli paste
pound them coarsely
One of my other resolutions for almost every year to "eat healthy", with yummy flavors, protein-rich and good-carb food. Today's recipe falls into that category. It has chickpeas, pasta, lots of herbs and spicy kick to it.
Enjoy!
{Recipe} Pasta e Ceci with Herbs, Garlic and Chillies
Adapted from Cheeky Chilli and Luisa Weiss's My Berlin Kitchen Serves 1-2 (depending on how hungry they are!) Prep time: 5-6 hours for soaking and cooking if using dried chickpeas Cook time: 20-30 mins
Ingredients:
1 cup cooked (or canned, drained and rinsed) chickpeas**
1 tbsp olive oil
1 or 2 tomatoes (depending on how tart you want the sauce to be)
chopped herbs - I used basil and cilantro. One can use rosemary and/or parsley
1 whole garlic clove + 1 garlic clove (minced - optional)
2 dry red chillies
1/2 tsp salt + more as needed
fistful of dry pasta of any kind. I used farfalle.
*Note**: Soak 2 cups dry chickpeas over night in filtered water and then pour water until they are fully submerged, pressure cook on HIGH heat for 9-12 minutes. Let the pressure be released naturally and there you have boiled chickpeas ready for use. I normally cook at least 5-6 cups and freeze them in small portions. When required, all you have to do is thaw and they are ready for use.
Preparation:
For Chilli-Garlic paste - Soak red chillies in boiling water for 30 minutes so that they soften a bit. Drain and roll them in paper towels. In a mortar and pestle, coarsely pound chilies with whole garlic clove and a 1/2 tsp of salt.
For Chickpeas - Cook chickpeas as per the *Note* above. Save some liquid in which they are cooked in. Reserve half of boiled chickpeas and puree the rest with its own liquid along with salt and cilantro.
1. Heat olive oil in a pan and add minced garlic (if using). Then add little chilli paste (I added about 1/4 tsp). The recipe doesn't require the entire amount pounded. Save rest in an air tight container. Add tomatoes and cook until they break down.
2. Mix in the chickpea puree. Season with some salt if necessary.
3. Boil the pasta until al dente. Add some pasta liquid to the sauce, if its too thick.
4. Drain pasta in a colander and add to chickpea sauce. Add the reserved whole chickpeas and toss gently. Check for the seasoning.
5. Sprinkle herbs and Serve immediately.
...a meal enjoyed all by myself on a cool Sunday afternoon. They say memories are associated with food, most of the times. Its definitely true with this recipe. The empty plate and the burrp are the proof. :-)
During this happy holiday times, bring a smile and make difference into these kids lives at Vaidehi Ashram. Donate and lend a helping hand for their bright future. More details - Click here.
There are some recipes which make your mouth water just by the very mention and some which are considered as "comfort food" which pep you up on a not-so-good day. For me, Olive Garden's "Eggplant Parmagiana" fall into both the categories. This classic Italian-American dish is a lovely way to serve eggplant. The very combination of fried eggplant with tomata sauce, pasta, cheese and basil on the top is too good to resist. It is a scrumptious vegetable dish, perfect for any parties or potlucks.
Instead of baking in a casserole dish, I chose to assemble the fried eggplant individually on a bed of pasta & tomato sauce. Since its just two of us eating dinner most of the times, this works as I don't need to worry about left overs.
But, for a bigger group, to make things simple - in a shallow baking dish, arrange fried eggplant slices with cheese, pasta and tomato sauce as layers to form a stack and bake until cheese bubbles. Top with shredded basil leaves. Yum!
Today is Saturday. a self-declared do-nothing day. a day usually spent with a book in hand and definitely not a day where I cook something, photograph and share here on the blog.
But today is different.
I just couldn't resist from posting this quick, utterly, buttery recipe - pasta with tomato sauce and fried egg on the side, a combination made in heaven. literally.
{Recipe} Easy Spaghetti with Tomato Sauce and Fried Egg
Serves 1
Ingredients:
1 fistful of spaghetti
1 tbsp butter
1/2 cup (or more, based on how tomatoe-y you want) home made tomato sauce (or) store-bought tomato sauce
few red pepper flakes
handful of frozen peas, microwaved for 2 minutes
1 egg
1/2 tbsp dried basil leaves + 1 tsp to sprinkle on the fried egg (if desired)
salt - to taste
Preparation:
1. Boil water and add salt to it. Add spagetti and let it cook al dente. Mine was done in 8-9 minutes. Drain. Keep aside.
2. Meanwhile melt butter in a pan and add tomato sauce and peas. Cook for 2 minutes and add cooked spaghetti. Crush basil leaves between your palms and sprinkle on pasta with few red pepper flakes. Mix gently.
3. Heat a pan, add a wee bit of butter or oil, break an egg, sprinkle some salt and basil leaves.
Serve pasta piping hot with fried egg on the side. Yum Yum! This definitely made my day with its simplicity and deliciousness. :-)
I never realized that updating my recipe index would be this tedious and time-consuming. But I did it - neatly categorized and added all the recipes ever posted on the blog. Check it out for some fun breakfast/lunch/dinner ideas. :-) Your feedback is always welcome.
It is my dream to go to Greece and then Italy one day. To enjoy their pristine blue beaches and also to spend a day or two on their olive oil plantations. I love olive oil and for me, garlic bread with olive oil could be a meal in itself. It is always intriguing to me how each of the olive oils taste and vary by the region in which they are cultivated and the extraction process as well. Some are spicy & pungent, Some fruity with bitter peppery tones and some very delicately fruity.
It was an initiative by Oliveitup, a three-year campaign in collaboration with Italy and for promoting European olive oil in India. It organises a series of training activities and information services to disseminate correct knowledge of this amazing product.
See the below pic. it is Mr.Michele Labarile, the tasting expert who shared a wealth of his knowledge about tasting different kinds of olive oil that were put forth in front of us. The procedure is as subtle and similar to wine-tasting. Here is a brief overview for you all -
1) Pour the oil in a small glass and gently swirl in order to release all the aromas. 2) ..smell the oil, first briefly then more deeply. 3) ..now sip a small quantity of oil and try to keep it in front of your mouth between your lower lip and your tightly shut teeth... 4) .. now breathe in through the clenched teeth, first delicately, then more vigorously, so as to vaporise the oil inside the mouth and the sides of the tongues, where the taste buds are... 5) ..then while trying to identify the aromas & flavours, exhale from the nose so that the vaporised oil particles can reach the nasal membrane giving even more precise sensation.. 6) ...once you can a clear taste profile (ranging from being fruity to bittery to peppery), expel the oil!
Phew!, see it is not that easy to taste olive oil and needs a lot of precision & practice. :-)
Mr. Michle Labarile, the tasting expert in action.
Did you know: a diet rich in olive oil (esp extra virgin variety) can strengthen your immune system, reduce cholestrol, prevent many cardiovascular diseases, lower blood pressure and can have a positive impact on the emergence of diabetes.
I, like many others out there was always under the impression that olive oil is good for no-cook recipes as I was under the impression that it should not be heated to a high temperature. I was so Wrong!!!!. Olive oil has a higher smoking point and for all our Indian cooking needs, it can be comfortably used. Nutritional Expert - Ishi Khosla confirmed that fact during this meet. From then on, I have started to use more of Olive oil and less of processed oils such as vegetable oil & canola oil.
The next big highlight of the whole event was to see the most exuberant celebrity chef on Indian TV - Vicky Ratnanilive, in action Yes, the Gourmet Guru himself.
Here are some shots from his cooking demo -
Chef VR mostly uses Olive Oil for his cooking..
Different colors of peppers, finely chopped & ready for use..
Chef VR's very famous "Hathoda", a.k.a Pepper Grinder
Guess what Chef VR made for us? The most unusual combination of flavors which came out so beautifully.
He made Root Vegetable Cutlets with Peach & Bell pepper chutney. Yumm-de-dum :D. Both of them were like match-made-in-heaven and super fantastic.
Root Vegetable Cutlets, ready to be shallow fried.
Of course there was media too in the event and here is Chef VR giving a brief interview - why he loves olive oil over others..
The final dish: this is how it looked. You can see the amazing plating skills of Chef VR in the below shot.
Image Credits: A special thanks to Mads for letting me share the pics above from the olive oil tasting event.
Now, coming to the recipe - Spaghetti Aglio Olio. It is totally Italian-o, as Chef VR says and it is his recipe of course from the show "Gourmet Central"!!!. :-). One bite and you are transported back to Italy. It is simple yet very tasty and if you are a pasta-lover like me, this could be a perfect snack at any time of the day. We were given couple of bottles of Italian olive oil at the conference, So I used them for making this dish.
I highly recommend everybody to use Olive oil or at least a blend of oils (such an 1:1 proportion of Olive oil & Rice Bran oil, a tip I got from Mads). Oil is a form of fat that goes into our bodies and it is imperative to make sure it is something which increases good cholesterol and decreases the bad.
One week just flew by and here we are with 19 amazing dishes for Presto Pasta Night edition 176. It has been a pleasure hosting it and I thank Ruth for giving me the opportunity.
Let's jump into the lovely array of pasta dishes...shall we..:)
