Pardon that you’d be bombarded with pasta dishes in the following posts. 😀 Still part of our Italian tour, we visited Bologna, which is year 2000’s European capital of culture and the capital of the Emilia-Romagna Region in Northern Italy as the last stop.
Hubby jokingly said that he would have its infamous dish, pasta with ragu alla bolognese for sure…I said we would probably be tired of eating pasta by then having tried a lot in the other 4 cities. Truth be told, I was already tired that I do not have the delight to sight-see anymore. We spent most of our time at the hotel which is not exactly in the city proper of Bologna and we’ll need to take a taxi every time we go – that added to my laziness.
walking about in Bologna (photo by hubby)
Summing it up, we probably only had a total of 4 hours enjoying the historical city. I felt short of my mission to actually travel and enjoy food the city is known for. But, hubby didn’t back out on his earlier joke, we dined at a trattoria we found while exploring (my god, I totally forgot the name), he got his ragu alla bolognese while I had grilled swordfish (too lazy to talk about it now really).Continue Reading…
The last week of July was spent with so much walking I felt like I lost 5 kilos as I go…then again, it was also spent eating here and there that the kilos lost came back too soon! And where did our itchy feet took us, you might ask? Hubby and I went to five cities in a one-week stretch and drank history along with art, old architecture, cars, Vespas and heat in sunny, sophisticated, busy Italy.
Among the cities we’ve seen, Florence – dubbed as the Athens of the Middle Ages impressed me the most. Being on the streets walked upon by the artists responsible for the Renaissance, I had a good feeling I might be able to write my own book while there (lol). Seeing the spots Robert Langdon and Sienna Brooks trailed made Inferno a much more tangible story for us both.Continue Reading…
What’s your comfort food? I have a lot but, anything that’s cooked with fruits of the sea is comfort enough for me. As far as vim and the palate could get – a fusion between flavors – I think pasta and a mix of a Filipino favorite would be a hit. Thus, the aligue or what we endearingly call taba ng talangka (crab fat) has found a following among foodies….despite and in spite of the calorie content it will add to any dish.
And for some expats, bringing a precious bottle of this back from a Philippine vacation is a must (read: hubby and I). The aligue has become synonymous to our bagoong (shrimp paste) in a certain level. ^_^Continue Reading…
Gift giving is truly a wonderful thing. Not only for the receiver but most especially for the giver. What’s more pleasurable in being cheerful is when your gifts get appreciated. To some, jewelry, perfume even apparel are top gifts on list. Most people though enjoy chocolates as gift, others enjoy books, still others enjoy both and not just a certain book but a cookbook at that…chances are, that person could be a food lover or a foodie.
Most, if not all foodies would certainly appreciate those all-season if not Christmas hampers from Clearwater, complete with goodies and what a foodie loves. Though I am not a real foodie as I would like to be, I enjoy a lot of dishes and I always have fun following recipes. Yes, I would love to receive one of those hampers, even those that I have seen from the grocery nearest us which include a number of items fit for, well, snacking and cooking. For one, a hamper full of assorted chocolates, chocolate chip cookies, cheeses, dips, Champagne or white wine would be perfect.
Speaking of white wine, I received a bottle or two from my mom-in-law (not in a hamper though :/ but better than none of course). I opened one of the bottles recently to make this creamy white wine sauce that I’ve been craving for. Though I was going for a thicker finish, I had taken the sauce out of the pan too soon that it turned out too milky. It’s fun that I had this tricolor curled pasta which the kids love. They had fun with this dish.
Sauce recipe for 5 Servings
1/2 cup and 2 tablespoons heavy whipping cream
1/3 cup and 2 tablespoons white wine
1 tablespoon and 3/4 teaspoon all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt 1/2 teaspoon dried parsley (but try having fresh too)
pasta of your choice
bacon bits
1. Cook pasta per package directions, set aside.
2. In a medium saucepan over medium high heat, combine the cream, wine, flour, salt and parsley.
3. Stir all together bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low and simmer until thickened. Thus, thickened means when the amount is reduced to half, which I probably didn’t have patience for at the time.
4. Serve over pasta and garnish with bacon bits and parsley.
Whether we admit it or not, we are all influenced by our work environment. A good working environment is even considered as motivational criteria by some employers. The same thing applies to us homemakers who work on providing a good home and nutritious meal for the family. And so if you ask me, does the kitchen have an effect on how one, particularly the homemaker, performs in it? Then my answer is – I believe yes, it does.
A clean and well organized kitchen can make preparing meals a pleasant experience for moms or any member of the family who attempts to cook. Just like an artist, a cook needs good ambience to inspire the creation of a culinary masterpiece. Fitting your kitchen with the right equipment and furnishings can help you create an inspiring atmosphere for cooking.
Our kitchen cabinets were customized to fit.
The most prominent furniture that you can find in the kitchen is the cabinet. Thus, some careful thought is required in purchasing and fitting these cabinets in your kitchen. You don’t need to blow your budget to get the look you want for your kitchen. There are plenty of cheap kitchen cabinets that are stylish and well designed.
If you are new to this endeavor, then I suggest you consult a designer or do some research on the kitchen styles and layout that you want for your kitchen. Kitchen Cabinet Kings for example, an expert online resource for new kitchen installation and redecorating purposes. If you are simply looking to install or replace your existing cabinets then look for style options that can fit your kitchen, your needs and the ambience you want.
You might opt for wooden cabinets in classic designs combined with modern steel appliances that create a mix of homey traditional feel and cool efficiency of modern times. This type of design allows one to keep a spic and span kitchen that motivates me to do a lot of cooking and baking at home. You should also try to find a kitchen cabinet style that can motivate you to whip up gourmet treats for your loved ones. This way you can create hearty meals for the family that truly comes from your heart. Our kitchen was planned by hubby and customized to fit. I truly love it!
A favorite.
Cleaning the kitchen is another story. I can’t move around well when there’s clutter and when pans and plates are all on top of the countertops. :/ It is much easier to move around when everything is squeaky clean. I try my best to do so and whenever I do I always come up with something good on the plate.
With that and summer vacation fast approaching, it seems to be shaping up as days of a lot of cooking. One of those hearty meal that I enjoy preparing not just for being easy but for being yummy as well is Shrimp and Dried Tomatoes on Pasta.
Here’s my take:
Ingredients
Half a kilo of Spaghetti or Angel hair pasta
Half a kilo of cocktail shrimps or regular shrimps, peeled and deveined and wash thoroughly, dry with kitchen towels
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 tbsps olive oil
5-7 pieces of dried tomatoes, chopped
1/8 cup of dried basil
Seasalt
Parsley, chopped
Procedure
1. Cook pasta al dente. Drain and set aside.
2. In a pan, heat olive oil and saute garlic followed by shrimps. Cook until pink and firm.
3. Add dried tomatoes and dried basil, lower heat. Toss spaghetti in and remove from heat. Season with seasalt to taste.
4. Top with chopped parsley and serve with buttered baguette.
When I was a child, fish is a regular feature on our dining table. Milkfish, Tilapia, red grouper and mackerel scad are the usual fare but there’d be a lot more served dry, with sauce, smoked and grilled. My favorite part of the Milkfish would be…the belly. Unfortunately, my older brother loves it too so we would often engage in a fork-war to get to them first. ^_^
Ikura/Salmon roe I bought from a store opposite our place.
But for most fish, I would always save the roe/eggs (not to be confused with milt) if they have those intact, my mom knew how I love them and she would often pick those with a lot of eggs just for me. Then, I never ate them raw…I could not and I think my mom wouldn’t allow it for fear of the unknown. We rarely eat raw food unless it’s sushi, not even ceviche nor kinilaw (cooked in vinegar alone not with fire). And because then I don’t really have a say on what food to serve, I can’t experiment. ^_^
Now that I am the diva of my own kitchen, raw food has become a regular. Aside from greens and other munch-ready vegetables, caviar and sushi ingredients, which I can make on my own now, found themselves in our kitchen.
So today’s dish is similar to a pasta dish, I think, I’ve already featured years ago sans salmon roe. This is almost the same as the simple carbonara recipe but instead of using bacon, we use salmon and we substituted the bacon fat with butter.
Roe and Salmon on pasta.
Ingredients:
Butter
1 medium Shallot, chopped
Spaghetti
Smoked Salmon, cut into strips
Ikura/Cured Salmon roe
1 Egg
a teaspoon Pepper
pinch of salt
Optional:
Parsley
Cooking cream
Procedure:
Cook Spaghetti per package directions but minus 1-2 minutes the usual cooking time.
In a pan, melt butter and saute shallots until translucent. Remove from heat and add smoked salmon (cook minimally and leave some for topping).
In a separate bowl, beat the egg, add pepper and salt.
Drain spaghetti and add to the butter, shallot, salmon in pan and on very low heat. Add egg mixture and stir immediately. Here, you can opt to add cooking cream or not. I prefer not to add it because of the egg which makes the pasta creamy already.
Remove the pan from stove and serve pasta on plates, top with remaining smoked salmon, salmon roe and parsley.
This is great with a glass of champagne or perhaps some bruschetta drizzled with olive oil. Perfect for a hurried lunch or dinner!
I’ve recently found a food fondness (alliteration not intended) that has been long forgotten. Gnocchi, those thick, soft dumplings I like eating with tuna sauce reintroduced itself in our kitchen after a year of absence. ^_^
I think I’ve been overlooking that particular shelf…hmm more of I can’t see it for the height of me. Yep, I sometimes ask someone to help me get the item from up the shelf. I’m 5’3″ and shelves are made for taller people. hihi.
So as simple as this recipe gets you’ll need:
a can of tuna
a can of tomato sauce
ricotta
a pack of gnocchi (you can make them too)
garlic
onion
olive oil
basil leaves
pepper
quattro formaggi (optional)
If you bought gnocchi, simply follow the cooking instructions. If you’d like to make them on your own, here’s Mario Batali’s Gnocchi recipe. There are gnocchis that have ricotta already so if you get those then opt the ricotta out.
Saute garlic and onion on olive oil.
Pour tomato sauce and let simmer.
Stir in ricotta and tuna flakes.
Flavor with pepper and set aside.
Pour sauce mixture over gnocchi, garnish with basil leaves and cheese.
I would like to call this simple dish four-ingredient Carbonara but counting everything in – including pasta, there’s actually more and I forgot to include two other ingredients in this photo – parmesan and pepper. So let’s say four-ingredient Carbonara sauce. ^_^ Italian Carbonara doesn’t have cream; that’s what I’ve been reiterating in my posts and I’m sorry I just have to say it again. Then again, it always gets creamier with well, cream…and that’s perhaps what we we’re used to having.
Carbonara sauce has 4 basic ingredients, that’s egg, bacon, cheese and black pepper. Going more particular, the bacon used is either guanciale or pancetta but hey any bacon is ok. For the cheese, Parmigiano-Reggiano/parmesan is preferred but I sometimes use the more similar Grana Padano.
Here’s what you need:
250g pasta of your choice (I often have Spaghetti or Tagliatelle)
100g bacon
100g parmesan
2 eggs
pepper
additional:
olive oil
garlic
onion
To cook, saute bacon in olive oil. Prepare pasta per package directions. In a bowl combine raw eggs, a drop of olive oil, cheese and pepper, mix well.
Put pasta in pan while still hot but remove the pan from heat. Stir in raw eggs mixture with pasta. Season with salt and pepper but I find the bacon salty already so I opt to leave out salt. Top your Carbonara with lots of parsley.
This is where your preferences come in. You can add peas, mushroom, broccoli or other vegetables. I sometimes put in tuna in lieu of bacon. Will have to share that recipe too. Enjoy your meal!
At the start of spring the kids planted each an herb in small pots sitting by our kitchen window. Parsley, chives and basil were the contents of the packets we got from the store. They chose them in that order to as to who will plant the said herb. Parsley went to my oldest -daughter, chives went to my older son and basil was left for my younger boy. Months passed and they religiously water them, making sure that they get enough sunlight by the window but the chive withered. The parsley grew but not as much and only the basil was able to make itself thick…
So we had some of the basil plucked for this basic spaghetti recipe.
olive oil
ground beef (precooked – I usually simmer this)
minced garlic
tomatoes, cubed
basil leaves, chopped but leave some whole for garnishing
salt and pepper
pasta
1. Cook pasta per package directions.
2. In a saucepan, heat olive oil, put and cook ground beef until golden brown. Set the ground beef on one side of the pan and saute garlic. Do not overcook. Add tomatoes. Combine garlic and tomatoes with ground beef.
3. Stir in chopped basil leaves. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
4. Serve over cooked pasta and garnish with whole basil leaves.
Voila! Simple, easy and tasty.
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As for the quote, it’s not only Michael Chang, the tennis player who believes that with spaghetti and noodles he’d be ok. My younger son (pictured below) and the whole family loves spaghetti and any other noodles for that matter just like Chang.
I truly have Pinoy (Filipino) preferences when it comes to Spaghetti. I’ll have it sweet than the salty Jamie Oliver’s or bolognese or the sour marinara and ascuitta sauces. Even if original italian sauces tend to swerve on the two than sweet, I’m used to having it with lots of catsup (we say ketchup) and for this recipe, pineapple tidbits.
Ingredients
pasta of your choice
minced beef
leek, sliced into rings
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 can pineapple chunks or tidbits
salt
pepper
200ml cream
1/2 cup of tomato ketchup
a pack of tomato sauce
How to:
1. Cook pasta per package instructions. Drain pineapple saving the juice.
2. Heat oil in a large frying pan and saute meat until brown.
3. Add leek and drained pineapple to the beef and saute. Add a little pineapple juice.
4. Add ketchup and tomato sauce; mix everything well and simmer covered on low heat. Adjust according to taste, add more juice, salt and pepper.
