Roasted Veggies Pasta

Last night, I made pasta with homemade arugula pesto (from the arugula that grows in abundance in my cousin's garden). To top it, I roasted some cauliflower florets in the oven with a bit of olive oil. Then I roasted halved cherry tomatoes, and mixed it all into the past. Then topped with thin pieces of strong gruyère cheese (because I don't have any parmesan in the fridge right now T_T).

Easiest Pasta

Here's another super simple recipe. It involves 2 ingredients (+ seasoning), plus whatever else you want/have around.

All you have to do is the following:

1. Cook any type of pasta to desired consistency.
2. Mix in some mayonnaise (vegenaise if you want it vegan).
3. Season with salt and pepper.
4. Add some extra stuff (in this one, cashews and tomato).

For step 4, you can really put whatever you want! The first time I've had this type of pasta salad, it was just toasted pine nuts. The second time? Canned corn. I've done it with some carrots, other vegetables, etc. Realy easy for when you want pasta but are too lazy to make a sauce, or if you just don't have a lot of ingredients around. What's best about this recipe is how versatile it is!

Yet another gratin

December 6, 2013
I made another gratin at some friends' house, but this time I added pasta into the mix. We didn't have very good pans to bake it in, so I split it into a big glass bowl and a couple of mugs.

Birthday Party Food

I forgot to post this, and was cleaning up pictures from my camera. These are from Dec. 8, 2012, my cousin's birthday.

Pasta gratin:

Small apple cake:

Lasagne alla spinaci e "ricotta"

The layers are made of alternating Tomato sauce, Tofu ricotta, Lasagna noodles, Spinach, and some Bechamel sauce.

 

I am now going to describe the recipe, step by step for each layer, then the overall layering at the end.

For 4-6 servings

Tofu ricotta:
- 2 blocks of tofu (~600 g)
- 1 tbs olive oil
- 2 tsp Italian seasoning
- 1 tsp lemon juice

1. Crumble the tofu until it looks like ricotta
2. Mix in the rest of the ingredients

Tomato sauce:
- 2 cans ~400 g peeled tomatoes
- 1-2 carrot
- olive oil
- Italian seasoning
- salt and sugar to taste

1. Dice the carrots while heating the oil in a saucepan.
2. Once the oil is hot, drop in the carrots and stir to prevent sticking. Let them cook a few minutes, then add in the peeled tomatoes.
3. Crush the tomatoes with a wooden spoon while stirring to avoid overly large chungs in the sauce. Be careful, the insides of canned peeled tomatoes have a tendency to squirt their juices!
4. Season to taste

Spinach:
- ~250 g frozen spinach
- Salt and pepper

1. Follow instructions on the package as to how to thaw and cook the spinach. Add some salt and pepper to taste.

Bechamel sauce variante:
Note: I do this more by feel than by actually measuring... It's also a question of preferences, so I suggest Googling a recipe for Bechamel sauce if my instructions aren't sufficient.
- Butter
- Flour
- Milk
- Salt
- Pepper
- Nutmeg > not in the normal recipe

1. Melt the butter over medium-low heat in a saucepan. Arm yourself with a whisk.
2. Add in flour a little at the time to prevent clumping.
3. Add in milk a little at the time, whisking constantly.
4. Season to taste.

LASAGNA RECIPE:
- Tomato sauce
- Spinach
- Tofu ricotta
- Bechamel variante
- Lasagna noodle (I got the type that doesn't require precooking)

1. Grease a pan that goes in the oven with either oil or butter.
2. Lay down a layer of tomato sauce.
3. Cover with lasagna noodles.
4. Add tomato sauce.
5. Then a layer of spinach.
6. And a layer of tofu ricotta, "crumbling" it with your fingers.
7. Ladle on some bechamel.
8. Repeat steps 3-7 until the pan is full (I only managed 2 times).
9. Cover with shredded cheese.
10. Bake in oven for about 30 mins at 180°C.

Enjoy~

Tip: You can mix the spinach and ricotta together and combine steps 5 and 6 into one step.

As a side, I am really proud of that last picture! I'm really happy how it turned out. All with my good-old Canon Powershot SD1200 IS~

Stuffed Eggplant meal

September 24, 2012

I made two types of stuffed eggplants. One was stuffed with leftover Okonomiyaki veggies tossed in leftover pizza sauce that my brother left. The other was eggplant, zucchini, and tofu tossed with some tomatoes. The whole draped in a criss-crossed pattern of cheese and served with penne.

Italian

A pasta salad I made because I went on a trip where there wasn't much vegetarian food available, so I brought my own. Simply penne pasta, eggplants, fresh spinach, feta cheese, with a side of tomatoes and kidney beans. The dressing is homemade, with mustard, salt, sugar, pepper, olive oil, and balsamic vinegar.

Then today, my aunt made homemade pizza ^^

The trick for the aromatic oil (much like those found in restaurants). The first time I made the oil, it wasn't very spicy. Actually it barely was. So this time around, I took a certain amount of oil, and crushed dried chillies into it. I also added some dried-up rosemary, but it wasn't very fragrant. Covered it and left it to marinate for over a week, then strained the oil into the bottle. So this oil was spicy, but not too much.

I also recommend keeping a branch of rosemary whole, and stuffing it into the bottle for decorative purposes. Mine isn't very pretty, because the only rosemary I had was half-dead and dried up. But it still serves its purpose.

Love gratin

Successful heart this time~

Recipe~ (6 servings)
Ingredients:
- 6 servings of pasta
- 1 tbs flour
- a little less than 1 L milk
- butter
- Italian seasoning
- grated cheese
- 2-3 mushrooms (brown or white)
- salt and sugar to taste

Procedure:
1. Cook pasta according to instructions.
2. Heat the flour in a dry saucepan over low heat. Stir constantly to avoid burning.
3. Add in butter.
4. Slowly stir in the milk. Avoid making clumps.
5. Add a few pinches of Italian seasoning.
6. Pour pasta and diced mushrooms in an oven pan. Mix well.
7. Pour sauce over, cover in cheese. Top with Italian seasoning.
8. Optional: Make a design on top with seasoning.
9. Bake until golden. Enjoy~

Here's another one:
Photography credits to my cousin~

I had a friend over, so I made this. It is also a pasta gratin, except there are no mushrooms this time. The sauce was also super liquid, so it was harder to serve.

A bowl of pasta

Note: Serving sizes may vary. I cook with what I have, for those who need food at the time.

Recipe~ (2-3 servings)

Ingredients:

- 3 carrots

- 2/3 eggplant

- 1/3 zucchini

- 1 tomato

- 1 small can tomato concentrate

- 1/3 tofu, fried

- 2 white mushrooms

- Olive oil

- 1 tbs lentils

- 2-3 portions spirelli pasta

- Italian seasoning

- Paprika powser

- Mushroom seasoning (kinda like a soup base... it's Asian stuff, I don't know how to describe it)

- Salt, sugar to taste

- A few leaves of basil

Procedure:

1. Dice everything.

2. Cook the lentils according to the package. Meanwhile, boil the carrots and eggplants. Cook the pasta according to package instructions.

3. Cook the tomatoes in oil until liquefied. Add in the now tender eggplants and carrots, along with the tofu, mushrooms, and zucchini. Reserve the water in which you cooked the eggplants and carrots.

4. Add the tomato concentrate. If too thick, add the water reserved in step 3. That will keep the sauce from tasting watery. Add in lentils.

5. Season with the seasoning mentioned in Ingredients, to taste.

6. Serve and top with basil~ Enjoy!

Pasta salad

Some pasta salad I made because my cousin and I were hungry. Hidden under the pasta (because they were uglier) are sautéed Belgian endives and fried tofu. On top is a mix of diced tomatoes, olive oil, chopped basil and Italian spices, parmesan, and rucola.

Tonight's dinner

Pasta:

Asparagus rolls with cottage cheese/herb sauce:

Random things

Blood orange

Technically not something I cooked... Well, I cooked the peel. We had an organic chemistry lab, in which we had to extract limonene from the orange peel. Afterwards, we could either bring the orange home, or leave it in this basket in the lab room. I took mine home, and they were delicious! Very pretty, too, so I wanted to share.

Pita

Again, not something I cooked, but it's delicious. Got it at the Grand Place in Brussels.

Some pasta

Didn't have anything to make for dinner one day, except a bunch of cans.... So I made spaghetti.

Pasta and a bird's nest

Pasta -  Capellini with Bechemel (+ Italian seasoning, tofu, and mushrooms).

"Bird's nest" - chopped carrots, chou-rave (kohlrabi?), and potato, cooked together.

Some pasta I forgot to post

December 07, 2011

As I recall... Eggplant, mushroom, and cooking cream are the base ingredients of the sauce.

Pasta and a rose

Penne with veggies and tomato sauce, decorated with a mozzarella rose. Served with Parmesan and grated cheese.

Tagliatelle -- my own recipe

So I made this for dinner today, but completely forgot to take pictures ^^. I'm not exactly sure of the proportions, but these are the amounts I used. Anyways, for the seasoning, I add some, taste it, then add more if needed. Really that's how I cook. No definite recipe.

As I read in many places, when you cook, you feed yourself to people. In a way, it's like, if you prefer things a little sweeter, you'll instinctively add more sugar than other things. So you give to other what you would eat. But I think cooking itself is fun. Of course, I know I do it to my own taste (so that's why it's often too salty for my parents), but I get this kind of joy when I chop the veggies or stir the pot. I am glad that I can make food for the people I love.

So this recipe is not really accurate and precise, since the amounts may not be right. Will come back to fix it when I figure it all out!

Ingredients:
- 4 servings tagliatelle pasta
- 2 tomatoes, diced
- 2 stalks celery, chopped
- 3 carrots, diced
- 4 medium mushrooms, diced
- 1 large eggplant, diced
- 1 tofu, shredded (squeeze in your hands)
- 1 piece ginger, finely chopped
- 1 small can tomato concentrate
- cooking cream
- olive oil or any mild oil (sunflower, nut, etc.)
- paprika and curry powder
- italian seasoning
- salt, sugar, pepper to taste
- shredded cheese

1. Cook the pasta according to the instructions on the package.
2. Sautée the celery in oil until the leaves are darker or the white part is golden. Add in the carrots. After a while, add in the eggplant. Make sure to stir well so the vegetables don't stick. Add in a pinch of salt and some pepper.
3. In a saucepan, cook the tomatoes in oil until liquidized. Add in the vegetables from Step 2. Stir well. Lower the heat and cover. After 2-3 minutes, add in mushrooms, then the tomato concentrate. After stirring actively for a moment, add the "crushed" tofu.
4. Sautée the ginger and add it to the sauce. Add the cooking cream.
5. Add about 1/4 teaspoons each of the curry and paprika powder (I'm not sure how much, did it randomly ^^). Add 2 pinches of italian seasoning. Salt and sugar to taste.
6. Plate the pasta, pour the sauce on top. Sprinkle with a pinch of italian seasoning and some pepper. Put shredded cheese on top. Serve hot.

Note: The sauce should seem like it is too dry. It won't be, but it looks like it.