A regular Spaghetti Bolognese

By Za


Hello there! 

Do you feel like speghetti? with something like, no white cream or mixed sauce? 
Okay, let's go for bolognere. Got your tomatoes and minced meat? let's go 


So, we'll need:

• 2 tbsp oil
• 1 + 1/2 tomato. 
• Minced meat of your choice (beef, lamb, mutton..etc) 
• 1 onions 
• 4 Garlic cloves. 
• Origano (optional,) 
• Cloves (optional)
• 1 bay leaf (optional) 
• 1/2 tsp sugar. 
• Salt 
• water 
• Spaghetti. 

• No black/white papper for me, but you can hadd it if you want to. 

Let's go, 

In a cooking pot, heat the oil then add the grated onions and garlic. Let them soften up a bit. 

Put the minced meat and stir (+salt) until cooked. 

Grate your tomatoes (or blend them) and add them in the pot, then stir everything. let it cook for 3 minutes or so, then add water depending on your pot's size (try to fill up half of your pot) 

Add your 1/2 tea spoon of sugar to kill the acidity of tomatoes. 
Add a bay leaf. 
let cook. 

Boil your spaghetti, then drain it.

When the sauce is ready, add your spaghetti to it and let it get homogeneous with the sauce for roughly 5minutes (on low fire) 

Remove you bay leaf. 

Serve in one plate and share it. 

Bsahetkom, Bon appetit, Enjoy 

:) 

Pasta bake with veggies - Yemeni Hands

By Reem 

This is a simple recipe for pasta and cheese lovers.

I just followed instructions on the pasta sauce jar.

Cooking time: 40 mins, serves 6

Ingredients:

1. Pasta (i used wholemeal) 3/4 of a medium pack.
2. Cheese (i used mozzarella and cheddar).
3. A generous amount (depends on u).
4. Pasta bake ready sauce (whole jar) I will upload the pic of it.
5. A whole medium red onions
6. A carrot
7. 1/4 green pepper
8. 1/4 orange or red pepper
9. Salt and black pepper.

Method:

Preheat the oven on the highest.

Boil your pasta (salt and olive oil)

Fry the chopped veggies in a bit of vooking olive oil. Start with the carrots, onions and peppers. 

When the pasta has cooked fully, drain it and add it to the pan which has the veggies.

Cook together for 3 mins and add salt and black pepper.

Pour the sauce jar into a deep-ish oven tray.

Add water (not boiled( to the empty jar, shake it and add it to the pasta mixture.

Put the pasta mixture into the oven tray.

Mix it all up.

Put it in the oven.

Take it out in 20 mins.

Can add more black pepper at this stage.

Add half the cheese into the pasta. Make sure it goes all in and everywhere. It will be melting. Yummmy.

Sprinkle the rest on top and back in the oven until the cheese on top is golden brown.

Serve hottt and enjoy.

Here are some picture illustrating the steps: 

1

2

3 

4

                                                                          :) 

Small ring, Big ring: Tortellini,Tortelloni

Made by Raffaella with the contribution of Megan, Melanie and Za.

Originated from Italy, this ring-shaped pasta is absolutely delectable and savory. It is usually served with sauce or in a broth. 

*drooling* 

Tortelloni are bigger and generally stuffed with veggies. 

Parmesan cheese and Mortadella 

The filling: 
A portion of Turkey bacon! and another of Mortadella (this brilliant idea was the brainchild of Raffaella's long mulling over. Another option was cheese and spinach.) 

So, here's the deal: 

Stir fry the shredded turkey bacon and chopped mortadella together for a minute or two.

In a blender or a food processor put the mixture. Add 2 table spoons of Mascarpone cheese or any creamy cheese you like, and blend. Add the diced Parmesan, blend more, till you get this gorgeous burnt-pink-coloured paste (gloop lol) 

If it's too runny, add a bit of bread crumbs, till it gets slightly thicker. (see picture) 

Tortellini filling

The pasta 

Now, in order to get this beautifully shaped tortellini,

Make sure to follow these steps in the order indicated bellow: 

On your working counter, put 400g of flour and make a hole in the centre for 4 eggs and a pinch of salt. 

Incorporate the ingredients to create a non-sticky dough. 

Knead it as much as you can to soften it. If it's too hard and dry add few drops of milk/water 

On a surface dusted with flour, roll the dough flat after letting it rest for a few minutes. ( 10-15) 

Make squares 

Click here to see a video from youtube for ideas on how to fold and wrap your pasta :) 

Melanie engrossed in ring-shaping the pasta

You can also play with making round shaped Tortellini :-D 

Knock yourself out! make as many as you want. 

Then, chuck the first batch in -slightly salted- boiled water (adding a tbsp of oil helps the pasta not stick) 

The tortellini you get at the shop cook quiet rapidly, once you toss them in boiling water, allow them 2 to 3 minutes and you'll see them floating to the surface. That means they're ready. 

However, we let ours cook a bit longer (5 to 7 mins) as the dough was homemade and not thin enough. We used a roller pin to roll the dough 0.5mm thick, but it would have been a whole lot easier and way much better to use a pasta roller (click) ... (which we didn't have hehe :-p )

The pasta was super yummy with white Alfredo sauce

Bsahetkom - Enjoy- Bon appetit 

Tuna pasta salad

By Reem

The steps are illustrated in the pictures. Pretty simple . Enjoy :)  

Ingredients: 

Pasta, half a tin of tuna, 2 egg, olives, quarter of 1 red onion, half a tin of kidney beans, half a green pepper and half a red pepper, sweet corn, mayo ♥, salt, black pepper, olive oil and if u have caeser salad dressing it will be buff.

This is how it's made:

Boil pasta, boil 2 eggs.
Finely chop: onions, red and green peppers.
Get the remaining ingredients ready.
Rub the chopped onions in lots of salt for 20 secs then rinse it with cold water really well. This makes ur mouth stink waaay less.
Now the thing which rocks in this salad:
Fry the peppers in a wee bit of olive oil for 5 mins and then add the kidney beans. Brings out both of their flavours.
Mash the tuna with mayo and black pepper until smooth.
Cut each egg into 16+ pieces.
Add everything together including the remaining of the ingredients.

Enjoy.

:) 

oh oh, I forgot it had mushrooms but not essential

Pasta for lazy foodists

Howdy,

Autumn makes me reflect on veggie soup, bread, pastries and pasta!

Coming in different shapes, size and colours, I often find myself lost and indecisive to pick the ‘one’.. the privileged pasta for the day.

This time I opted for one kind of pasta that goes completely out of shape when cooked! I’m not good at preparing it “al dente” style.. hence why I said out of shape. One can even get the dramatic “lazy” gist from the look of it.

I picked this particular shape because it made me visualise some wobbly seashells made of semolina doubling in size and getting quite chubby once boiled.

As for the sauce, normally, I would go for Bolognese (yum) but laziness got the most of me this time and instructed my hand to go grab the nearest ‘four cheese powder’ sachet stashed in the cupboard. Hence I called it lazy too. 

So, the ingredients consist of the following:

• Pasta: (Conchiglie preferably) – your favourite shape works just as fine!
• Olive oil
• Black olives
• Kidney beans
• Four cheese sauce.
• Minced meat (beef)
• Garlic
• Paprika
• Nutmeg (optional)

No exact measurements for this one.

PS: kidney beans are known to be highly effective for cholesterol reduction. They have both saturated and unsaturated fat easily burnt during exercise. Their folate benefits work against cardiovascular illnesses, boosts memory and the immune system. Rich in iron and help stabilise blood sugar.  

Preparation:

Put the pasta to boil (I tend to add a tbsp of oil and another of salt in the boiling water. As soon as the pasta’s cooked and drained, I drizzle a bit of olive oil and mix it all so it doesn’t get dry or sticky)

Get your handful amount of kidney beans.

Slice the black olives

Put the minced meat in a greased pan to stir fry, add chopped/grated garlic (season with salt, pepper, cumin, whatever herbs you’ve got and fancy= optional ) and paprika. Add some water, just enough for it to cook in and dry. ( about 1/5 glass of water)

Bring all ingredients together on a pan/casserole (Pasta, beans, olives and meat) and pour the cheese sauce (cheese powder melted and incorporated in some milk.. instructions on the sachet)

Voila! :) 

This is a quintessential semi-healthy meal for lazy foodists :D so, Bsahatkom ( = Enjoy/ bon appétit )

 Za

Quick & easy pasta with chiken leftovers

by Camy

This is a quick, easy and delicious way of using meat leftovers. 

Just cook some pastas and cut your chicken (or whatever meat your using) in small pieces. Mix the two together.

 

 

Then, add some cheese (I added parmiggiano here but emmental or gruyere are even better) and tomato sauce (ketchup is also super yummy with it but way less healthy!) 

 

Stir well...

And there you have it! A quick, easy and yummy way to make pastas and use your leftovers!

Enjoy!