Melanzane Parmigiana

 

A classic Italian dish made with Aubergine or brinjal. It is almost like a lasagna but the pasta is replaced by Aubergine and the white sauce by cheese.

Ingredients:

Aubergine / Bhartha baingan - 750 gms

Tomato - 500 gms

Garlic - 2 pods

Salt

Red chilli flakes

Basil leaves - 4

Sugar - 1 pinch

Tomato ketchup 😉 - 1 tbsp

Olive oil - 2 tbsp 

Cheese - 250 gms

Method:

Cut the aubergine into thick 1 cm rounds and apply salt lightly on both sides. Keep aside for 1 hour. Then use a towel to squeeze out the extra water. Grill on a hot pan till lightly brown.

To make Tomato sauce:

Hear olive oil and fry the finely chopped garlic. Add the chopped tomato, salt, red chilly flakes, basil leaves and cook till the tomato becomes mushy. Add the tomato ketchup and sugar. Mix well and once cool, make a smooth purée. 

Layering and baking:

Take an oven proof dish and apply a thin layer of tomato sauce. Place the grilled aubergine and now add more tomato sauce. Add a thick layer of grated cheese. Next a layer of aubergine tomato sauce and cheese.

Repeat till you finish your stock of grilled melanzane, sauce and cheese.

Cover with aluminium foil.

Bake at 180 C for 45 minutes.

Aglio Olio / Pasta with Olive Oil and Garlic

The simplest of all pasta. How can a recipe be so easy to make and taste so luxurious?
Aglio = Garlic
Olio = Oil
This basic recipe has no vegetables added, but when they serve the same in restaurants either Mushrooms or Broccoli is added. How can explain the exorbitant cost otherwise?!

Ingredients for 1 person:
Pasta (preferably Spaghetti) - 150 gms
Olive Oil - 5 tbsp
Garlic chopped - 1 heaped tbsp
Chilly flakes - 1 tsp
Holy Basil to garnish (optional)

Method:
Boil the pasta in heavily salted water till cooked.
Warm the olive oil in a heavy bottomed vessel and add the garlic.
Once garlic sizzles and starts turning golden, add the chilly flakes.
Add the (cooked and) drained pasta and mix well.
Serve garnished with chopped basil leaves.

A side of crusty bread will soak up the beautiful oil!!

Hand rolled home made Pasta

While we think of Pasta, we always think of store bought ones. But making Pasta at home is not that tough and depending on the shape is quite easy.

Gnocchetti is a easy shape to make. And the special machines used are - fork and your thumb!

Ingredients:
All purpose flour / maida - 1 cup
Semolina / rava - 1/3 cup

Salt to taste

Olive oil - 2 tbsp

Method:

Mix the Flour, Semolina and salt.

Add just enough water to make a stiff dough. 

Add the Olive oil and knead well.

Keep covered for minimum 1 hour.

When you ready to shape the pasta, knead again.

To make Gnocchetti, you need a fork or anything serrated.

When you ready to cook the pasta, boil a lot of water with salt. 
When it comes to a rolling boil, add a handful of the rolled pasta and wait for it to float up. 
Take one and bite, if it feels cooked; strain. Otherwise continue cooking for 2-3 minutes more. Drain and toss in olive oil.
Bring the same water to boil and cook the rest of the pasta the same way.
After 2 batches, discard the water and use fresh water.

Use this pasta to make any dish of your choice.
I used it in a creamy tomato sauce.

Recipe:

Bring the home made pasta tomato sauce to a boil and add chopped Capsicum.

After 2 minutes, add 1 cup milk and boil again. 

Add the cooked hand rolled pasta and cook for one minute.

Serve hot garnished with cheese.

Mushroom and Spinach Risotto

Risotto....
Rice from Italy....
We love Italian food at home and mushroom is an all time favorite vegetable.
Spinach and mushroom make a perfect combination.
Must I add that it tickles the taste buds and is pleasing to the eye too?
Please do try making plain risotto too.

Ingredients:
Arborio Rice - 250 gms
Spinach - 1 bunch
Dried Mushroom - 50 gms
Vegetable stock - 3 litres
Onion -1 small
Garlic - 4 large cloves
Celery - 2 sticks
Wine - 1 cup (optional)
Salt to taste
Parmesan cheese - nearly 1 cup
Olive oil - 2 tbsp

Soak the mushroom in hot water and chop the onions, garlic, celery and spinach.
Keep the stock to boil, and once it starts boiling, reduce flame and keep warm.

Saute the onion, garlic and celery in olive oil until transparent.

Drain the mushrooms, squeeze the water and add the mushrooms to the onions.
Add the mushroom soaked water to the vegetable stock.

After a minute of frying on medium flame, add the rice and salt. Fry on medium flame for 2 minutes.

Increase flame. Make a well in the centre and add the wine.

Mix well. Once all the wine evaporates, add a ladle of warm stock.

Once this stock gets evaporated, pour in the next ladle. Continue this process till the rice cooks al dente.

Once the rice is cooked to your desired level, turn off flame.
Add the spinach and half of the parmesan cheese to the risotto.

Mix well and keep covered for 2 minutes.
Taste to check salt.

Serve with more cheese on top.
If you have left over Risotto, make arancini.

Easy Pasta with Tomatoes

You MUST make this. Especially on a holiday. When the whole family relaxes, you can make this dish in minutes and get so many 'wows'!
So easy, so tasty.
Just 3 main ingredients. Nothing fancy. Just tomato, garlic and cheese. It takes longer to cook the pasta than to make the tomato base! So you might want to start cooking the pasta before you start off with the tomato.

Serves - 2

Ingredients:
Pasta - 200 gms
Cherry tomato / tomato - 1/2 kg
Garlic - 6 cloves , chopped fine
Salt
Parmesan cheese - 1 cup
Olive oil - 5 tbsp

Method:
Boil the pasta in ample salted water till nearly cooked. Drain and toss in 1 tbsp olive oil.
If you are using ordinary tomato, cut them into large cubes. If you are using the cherry tomato, use them as they are.
Heat the rest of the olive oil and add the garlic.
Once it starts changing colour, add the whole tomato and salt.
Mix and cook covered.
Once it gets cooked, mash with the spoon and wait for more juice to ooze out.
Now add the pasta to this.
Toss and mix well and heat until the pasta gets heated through.
Add 1/2 cup parmesan and mix. Once well incorporated, turn off heat and serve topped with more cheese.
You can always garnish with some greens like basil, parsley or even celery.

Spaghetti with Tofu Balls

Spaghetti with meat balls.
Everyone has heard of it and since it is a classic I wanted it too. But meat balls for us vegetarians? That is where Soya comes in.
Tofu is made from soya and is called 'faux meat'. And I have used that to make the 'meat balls'.

Serves - 6 adults

Ingredients:
Spaghetti - 500 gms
Italian Tomato sauce
Parmesan grated - 1 cup (heaped)
Tofu balls (recipe below)

Cook the pasta in ample salted water until cooked. Drain.
Add the tomato sauce.
Mix well and add the tofu balls and half of the cheese.
Mix carefully.
Serve on induvidual plates and top with more cheese.

Ingredients to make tofu balls:
Tofu - 200gms
Garlic - 2 cloves
Celery - 1 stalk
Salt to taste
Thyme - 1 tsp
Rosemary - 1/2 tsp
Pepper - 1/2 tsp
Chilly flakes - 1/2 tsp
Bread crumbs (or) corn flour (or) all purpose flour - 1 tbsp (to be used only if necessary)
Oil for deep frying

Method to make tofu balls:
Crumble the tofu, grate the garlic, chop the celery finely and add in all the powders.
Mix everything together.

Now form tight balls with this. If water oozes when you do so, add either the bread crumbs (or) corn flour (or) all purpose flour and knead again.
Make small balls and keep aside.

Deep fry in hot oil, until golden brown.

These are your tofu balls.
Eat them as they are with tomato sauce or add it to your spaghetti.

Aubergine Roll

We had this amazing starter at Mocking Bird Cafe, Mumbai and my younger one who hates anything with Brinjal / aubergine wanted more!

Very easy to make and very tasty. If you have the red pasta sauce at hand, this recipe gets ready in a jiffy!

Ingredients:
Aubergine / Bharta Baingan
Olive oil - as required
Italian Tomato Pasta Sauce
Cheese spread - 1 tsp per aubergine slice*
(* if you are using plain, try adding some flavoring like pepper or rosemary)

Method:
Slice the aubergine into thin long slices.
Grill on each side using ample olive oil, until brown spots appear. Cool to room temperatre (or the cheese will melt).
Roll each grilled slice with cheese spread.
On the serving platter, dot with tomato sauce and place a roll on top.
Serve.

Pasta Potato Salad

Very easy salad. Ticks all the boxes. Easy, looks beautiful and filling.
My husband was saying that pasta and potato do not mix well. But THIS recipe proves him wrong!

Ingredients:
Potato - 1, cubed
Garlic - 5 cloves, crushed
Capsicum / bell pepper - 1, cubed
Tomato - 2, medium, cubed
Mushroom - 100 gms
Pasta - 1 cup
Chilly Flakes - 1 tsp or more
Olive oil - 4 tbsp
Spring Onion - 1 sprig , green part chopped fine
Juice of 1/2 a lemon

Method:
Boil 4 cups of water with 1 tsp salt.
Add the potato and cook for  5 minutes, till it softens but retains shape.
Drain and save the water.
In the same water, boil the pasta until 'al dente'. Drain and keep aside.
Heat 3 tbsp olive oil and add the cleaned mushroom + 2 cloves garlic.
Cook for 2 minutes covered. Then open and cook till it starts browning.
Now make a well in the centre and add the capsicum. Wait till you hear the skin popping. Then toss.
Season with salt.
Remove with a slotted spoon and keep aside.
Now in the same frying pan, add the rest of the oil and add the potato.
When it starts browning, add the garlic and chilly flakes.
When the garlic gets golden, add the tomato and saute till it softens.
Add in the capsicum, mushroom and cooked pasta.
Taste. Add more salt, if necessary and mix well.
Turn off flame and add the lemon juice.
Serve garnished with spring onion greens.

Tozzetti - Italian Biscuits

While watching TLC channel, a very pretty lady of Italian origin was doing a show and she was dunking some cookies into her Cappuccino. She said that Biscotti was not the only Italian biscuit. She talked about Tozzetti and when ahead making it. It had only 1 tablespoon of butter, but 2 egg yolks and 3 whole eggs. Oh, my! Too eggy.

Recipe search on Internet and Epicurious had a great recipe with 2 whole eggs. 

I have followed the recipe almost completely, but
1. I was too lazy to blanch the almonds. So I used unpeeled almonds.(:P)
2. Also the original recipe said 1-3/4 cup flour. But I had to add 1/3 cup more.

My husband, who travels often to Italy said the biscotti tasted 'like in Italian cafes'.

What I really liked about the recipe is you don't have to make individual balls. Just shape the dough into a log, bake and then cut into shape. Easy!

Ingredients:

Baking powder - 1 tbsp

Maida / All purpose Flour - 1 3/4 cup + extra for dusting 

Salt - 1/4 tsp

Butter - 1/4 cup

Sugar (powdered) - 3/4 cup

Egg - 2

Almonds - 1 cup

Method:

Preheat oven to 160 C for 10 minutes.

Sieve the flour, baking powder and salt together. Keep aside.

Mix the sugar and butter together and beat well till it becomes creamy.

Add eggs one at a time and beat well.

Into this butter-sugar mixture, add the sieved flour and bring it together.

Add more flour if necessary to make a stiff dough. (I added 1/3 cup more.)

Transfer to a floured surface and add the almonds. Mix well.

Make logs of 2 inch thickness and 1 inch radius. ( I made 4.)

Lay on silicon mat or baking sheet.

Bake for 25 - 30 minutes till golden.
Transfer to cutting board and slice the logs (while warm) using serrated knife in a slight slant into 1/2 inch cookies.

Arrange on cut cookies on a tray and bake again for 10 minutes.

Then flip over all the cookies and bake for 5 minutes.

Cool and transfer to air tight container.

Risotto di Pinoli Limone / Risotto with lemon and pinenuts

Risotto with lemon and pine nuts......Hmmm....
Something like our South Indian Lime rice?
Tasted similar ; but different!

Risotto is a 'labor of love'. But this recipe is easy and gives a quick makeover to left over rice.

I added Zucchini with the rice, as I had it with me. But cucumber can be used in it's place.

I used 'al dente' or 'not fully cooked' rice - left over from my fried rice made the previous night.

* If your rice is well cooked, then omit the stock / water completely and be careful with the stirring.

This is how I made my tangy risotto.

Ingredients:
Cooked rice - 2&1/2 to 3 cups
Olive oil - 1 tbsp
Butter - 1 tbsp
Pine nuts - 2 tbsp
Garlic - 1 tbsp, chopped
Onion - 1 small, chopped
* Stock or water - 1 cup
Zucchini / cucumber - 1 small, cut into thin strips
(I used a peeler to make ribbons with the zucchini)
Capsicum - 1/2 large, cut into thin strips
Lime juice - to taste (nearly 1 medium one)

Garnish :
Parmesan shaving
Basil leaves  (optional)

Heat the olive oil and butter together.
Fry the pine nuts till golden. Keep aside.
Into the same oil, add the onion and garlic.Cook on low flame till onion becomes transparent.
Now add the vegetables (zucchini and capsicum) and fry for 30 seconds or till it starts to wilt. They must not brown.
Add the stock / water and bring to a boil.
Add salt and cooked rice.
Once the water gets absorbed add the lime juice and mix well.
Serve hot with Parmesan shavings, pine nuts and basil leaves on top.