Penne Rigate in tomato and Basil

After eating rice for lunch for a whole month plus, it is great to cook something else for a change....*wink*

Ingredients (serving : 2)
A handful of penne rigate or spaghetti
1/4 big onion chopped
1 clove of garlic chopped
3 mushroom chopped
6 cloves of basil leaves sliced into strips
1/4 bottle of spaghetti sauce (I used Prego Italian sauce with mushroom)
2 tablespoon of virgin olive oil
A pot of water
salt and pepper to taste

Methods
1) Boil the pot of water and add a teaspoon of salt.
2) Add penne rigate when water is boiled. Boiled until al denta.
3) Heat up pan in medium heat, add olive oil.
4) Add onion and sauteed until soft, add garlic and mushroom and continue to sauteed until fragrant.
5) Add basil leaves and spaghetti sauce and continue to sauteed for another 10 minutes.
6) Add salt and pepper to taste into the sauce.
7) Drain water and add penne rigate into sauce.

Spaghetti Carbonara

I have seen this dish been made by an Italian before like 10 years ago. So the ingredients here are through memory. However, the sauteed onion, garlic and mushroom is something i wanted cause I love mushroom in my dish.

Ingredients
A handful of Spaghetti
1 egg beaten
2 spoonful of Parmesan Cheese
2 slice of ham cut into strips
4 button mushroom sliced
1 onion
2 cloves of garlic diced
2 spoonful of olive oil
1 small knob of butter
salt and pepper to taste
dash of sake


Method
















1. Boil water in pot. Add in a pinch of salt to the boiling water and put in the spaghetti. Boil it until AL Dante.
2. Heat the pan and olive oil.
3. Saute the onion and then garlic for 2 minutes.
4. Add in mushroom and continue to saute for around 3 minutes. Add a dash of salt, pepper and sake. Turn off the heat.

5. Beat egg and add parmesan cheese. Stir them together.
6. Pour away the water from pot and leave spaghetti.
7. Turn fire to very low. Put in egg and parmesan cheese solution, butter, ham and sauteed mushroom with spaghetti.
8. Continue stirring the spaghetti for 30 seconds in very low fire. Serve hot.

You can substitute ham with bacon and saute together with the mushroom. To made you sauce a bit creamier, you can add milk to the beaten egg and parmesan cheese.

Quick and easy meal lesson #1

This is a quick and easy meal that I usually made if I am too lazy to wash the dishes. You only need a pot to made this. So simply.

Ingredients (Serve 2)
1 can of tuna (drain the oil)
1 cup of Farfalle pasta
2 spoons of pesto mix ( I used Marks & Spencer classic pesto mix. The mix consists of Basil, Sunflower oil, Grana Padano and Pecorino Cheese,cashew nuts,pinenuts and extra virgin oil)
1 finely chopped tomato
Pasley for ganishing

Dash of white pepper


Method

1. Boil the Farfalla in water with some salt.

2.Once the farfalla is boiled to al denta, pour away the water.

3.Combine the tuna, pesto mix, tomato, pasley and white pepper while the farfalla is still hot. Serve hot.

I did not used more olive oil cause there are enough oil already in the pesto mix. The jar of mix cost me around SGD8.00 and it should last me more than 20 plates of pasta. So, it is a good buy. There is another brand for pesto mix that is quite good is the Barilla brand.