Pasta with Roasted Vegetables

Featured in Foodgawker.com on 16th Oct 2012

Featured in Tastespotting.com on 21st Oct 2012

No matter how good my refrigerator is, I can’t store things forever. Especially fruits and vegetables. I don’t have the luxury of taking a lovely evening stroll to source my produce everyday, like the friendly aunty who lives across the street from me. I go to a hypermarket close by and bundle everything I can into the car and lug it home once a week. I know the hypermarket claims the produce is super fresh and challenges anyone to claim otherwise. But everyone knows that even the supposedly ‘fresh’ produce in supermarkets is already stashed in cold storage for weeks to help transport it intact. Now is this a rant on the troubles of city living or the hypocrisy of large corporations? No.

I just have a rule that once I buy something perishable from the market, I need to finish it within a week. In a perfect world, I would have planned the menu for the week in advance. I would have used up everything judiciously by the end of the week. I would have variety everyday and would eat healthy and balanced meals. Unfortunately we live in the real world. Sometimes we work late, sometimes we run out of gas, sometimes we go out for dinner and sometimes we just want to order in greasy Chinese. Towards the end of the week, when I open the fridge to grab some chocolate – the veggies are staring back at me. The guilt meter points to high. That’s when genius strikes and I rustle up something that can accommodate the weeks shopping list. Fortunately this time, they all lent themselves to a nice Roasted Vegetable sauce served with Pasta. Hallelujah! Because it looked and tasted so amazing, the co-resident thought I planned this, weeks in advance J

Summer Pasta Salad - a la Infinitea

I’m more of a summer person than a winter person. Or so I thought, till I got baked in the sun the past couple of days. The heat has been unbearable. I have the fan on full speed at home and there’s still no respite. Being Bangalorean, I always think I don’t need an AC in our pleasant city. Boy, am I wrong! The only time I’m happy these days, is when I’m in the car and I have the AC on full blast in my face or when am under a cold shower! Which leads me to change my earlier notion of what weather person I am - I am an opti-weather person. I don’t like it too hot or too cold, too dry or too rainy, too windy or too still! I’m not fussy, but that’s the weather I would like. If wishes were horses, right? But I still concede that when it comes to satisfying my weather requirement, no other city in the world gets it as close to perfect as Bangalore. It’s almost like my genes have adapted to the city of my birth and the thermostat has been set to ‘comfortable’. Speaking of comfortable, I went to my old hangout Infinitea last week. Lazing around on their sofa’s, ordering a pomegranate ice tea and summer pasta salad and chatting with the girls. Can’t get more comfortable than that! I adore their version of the summer pasta salad (which is more of a main course in my opinion) and tried to replicate it at home. Results? A very comfortable match!

Summer Pasta Salad

Prep time: 30 mins

Cooking time: 15 mins

Serves: 4

What you need:

350 gms Penne

3 Peppers (1 red, 1 yellow, 1 green), finely chopped

1 small Onion, finely chopped

6 cloves of garlic, minced

3/4 cup Corn Kernals

100 gms Mushrooms, finely chopped

1 Tbsp chopped Jalapenos

1 Tbsp chopped Sun dried tomatoes in oil

2 Tbsp chopped Green and Black Olives

2 Tbsp Olive Oil

1 Tbsp Butter

200 ml Cream

Salt and freshly ground black Pepper

To garnish:

Grated Cheddar Cheese

Mixed Herbs

What to do:

Julienne the peppers and then chop them up into tiny pieces. Ensure that the onions and mushrooms are also chopped to roughly the same size. Try to cut up the olives, jalapenoes and sun dried tomatoes to the same size as well. In the meantime, boil the corn and set aside.(I used the microwave).

In a large saucepan, heat the olive oil and toss in the butter. When the butter sizzles, lower the heat and add the onions. Saute for 2 mins till it gets soft. Raise the heat. Then add the garlic and the mushrooms and saute for another minute. Toss in the peppers, saute for 3 mins. Finally add the corn, stir to combine.

Now lower the heat and add the cream. Cook for a minute and toss in the jalapenoes, sun dried tomatoes and olives. Season with salt and pepper. Mix to combine and Turn off the heat.

Spoon the pasta into a serving dish. (it helps if its microwave friendly). Now toss the grated cheese on top and heat for 30 secs in the microwave till the cheese is melty. Season with mixed herbs and serve!

P.S. You could add in the juice of 1 lemon in the final stage of seasoning to make it more tangy.

Penne with Bell Peppers Roman Style

I had two lovely yellow bell peppers in my fridge. After four days of racking my brains to come up with a mind blowing recipe, I chickened out. I could not see them go to waste for my lack of creative genius. Thanks to the gazillion cook books I own, (yes, I am cookbook cuckoo!) finding a recipe was a breeze. I would like you to believe that I put in considerable amount of effort picking and choosing just the right recipe, but the truth is I like a good gamble. So I closed my eyes and put my finger on the peppers list in the index! I give you here – Pasta with Peppers Roman Style. The Roman bit is because I had a crush on Julius Caesar. Ok, am playing with you now! Traditionally, tiny black wrinkled olives grown in the Lazio region of Italy are used in this roman dish. But I used Spanish olives. Oops! Don’t declare a war till you’ve tried it. iBuen Apetito!

Penne with Peppers Roman Style

Prep time: 15 mins

Cooking time: 35 mins

Serves: 4

What you need:

1/3 cup Olive oil

1 Onion, finely chopped

1 cup Black Olives, pitted and coarsely chopped

400gms canned chopped Tomatoes, drained/ 500gms Tomatoes, blanched and chopped

2 Yellow/ Red Peppers, seeded and cut into thin strips

Salt and pepper

350gms dried Penne/ Fettucine

Freshly grated Parmesan cheese to serve

What to do:

Heat the olive oil in a large heavy bottomed pan. Add the onion and cook over low heat, stirring occasionally, for 5 mins or until softened. Add the tomatoes, bell peppers and olives. Saute for 5 mins. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Cover and let simmer over very low heat for 25 mins. Stir occasionally.

Meanwhile bring a large heavy bottomed pan of lightly salted water to a boil. Add the pasta return to a boil and cook according to instructions on the packet. Penne must be tender but with a bite. Drain ad transfer to a serving dish.

Spoon the sauce onto the pasta and toss well. Sprinkle generously with the parmesan and serve immediately, with extra grated parmesan.

Note: Green bell peppers are not recommended in this recipe as they are a little too sharp and do not provide enough contrast with the saltiness of the olives.