Pasta ideas

I am a big fan of pasta, and not only because I can have a very delicious and affordable meal in less than 30 minutes, but also because I can create new recipes each time.

First, there is a great variety of pasta types that you can find nowadays on the market, with various ingredients and shapes. This last aspect is very important for children that may be extremely bothered to see that for the last 3 days they were served only pasta. You can tell them that yesterday it was the shell, today you have the dinos and tomorrow maybe some spirals.

When it comes to the ingredients for the pasta, there are several possibilities.

The simplest one is to add some tomato sauce. As for me, I prefer fresh ingredients, such as cherry tomatoes with basilicum and some olive oil. The pine seeds will change completely the taste of the meal.

You can also think about various sauces:
- spinach, with 2 table spoons of melted butter, garlic, salt, 1/2 spoon of black/or Cayenne pepper;
- pesto, 1 pepperoni, mushrooms, tomatoes, basilicum;
- 250 gr. finely chopped mushrooms, 1 zucchini, 10-15 black or green olives, garlic;
- ricotta cheese, with basilicum, 1 tablespoon of olive oil, and 10-15 finelly chopped black olives;
- 50 g almonds, 1/4 tablespoon black pepper, 100 g mushrooms finelly chopped, 2 spoons balsamico;
- 250 g tunna fish, finelly chopped with 1/4 tablespoon black pepper, garlic finelly chopped, 1 tablespoon olive oil.

The list could continue and once you are into the business of preparing pasta you can hardly go out by your own will. Unless you have some serious diet concerns.

Bon Appetit!

Pasta c(o)urse

We rarely miss a week without pasta. In fact, I would like to, but the little hungry monsters do not and I should follow their wishes.

But, it is not enough to prepare the simple pasta with cheese recipe. They expect some garlic, tomatoes, special spices and new recipes ideas every week.

This time I tried something amazing (for me): eggplant with fried almonds. And, of course, some small pieces of garlic.

The taste was indeed completely new and revolutionary but children do not like revolutions and I was punished to do my "classical" recipe next time.

Maybe my readers will appreciate more the gift of creative cooking.

Spaghetti combination

Saturday evening, after 8pm, you are not in the mood for too much cooking and if it's cold outside, going out to a fancy restaurant isn't a goos idea either. In such situations, with a hungry gang mumbling around, my creativity should be put on work immediately. I was lucky enough to find something interesting and the first reaction I remember was: it tastes as at the restaurant. A good encouragement for a sunny week, isn't it?

And, here is the suggestion:
two spoons of sesame seeds
5 walnuts grounded
one spoon of pesto
salt
parmesan
100 ml. sunflower oil

The sesame, with pesto, oil, and walnuts are fried for 5 minutes at 150C.
The boiled spaghetti - in salted water - are added and mixed together with the previous combination+the parmesan and maybe some pesto.
The total time dedicated to preparation: maximum 20 minutes.
The eating pleasure: almost infinite.

Emergency pasta

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 It was one of the days when I was overwhelmed by work - writing, of course - and under the terrible pressure to solve in a very quick time the pressing question of feeding the impatient kid. The kid being in a terrible hurry herself, with only two hours between the school program and her sport class. 

I had a short look around and it was a kind of disaster, one day of the usual weekly refuel shopping. 

Then I saw the big salvation:

- four fat bananas 

- five delicate carrots 

- some curry powder 

- the rests of some butter - 150 gr. 

and...ladies and gentlemen, the queen of my kitchen - a pack full of commoner fussili                            

Without saying a single word for not disturbing the laments of the kid complaining as usual about the difficult fate to be about 12 yo and with a mother always busy writing various untranslatable things, I put the water in the pot for boiling the fussili and the carrots, peeled the bananas and cut into medium-size pieces, prepared the butter. In maximum 30 minutes - the good amount of time to finish polishing some words -, the pots were boiling. Took out discretely the carrots, cut them into medium-size pieces, added the bananas and the butter, plus some 100 mgr. of olive oil, spread the curry, mixed all together and...when the pressure from the children room was increasing, shouted loudly: do you expect a special invitation, sweet squirrel? If I remember correctly, somebody was hurrying up...                                         Without giving me any credit, she entered reluctantly the kitchen and asked: What is this? Your lunch, baby, of course. Set the table quietly (the duty of those who don't make the food) and in the next 15 minutes, it was so quiet in the house...Simply delicious, I was congratulated when nothing was left in the pan. Everybody was happy, but I was the happiest, for passing, once again, the difficult test of motherhood.