Broccoli Pesto Pasta | Pasta Recipes

I love pesto you can see that in my spinach pesto, roasted beets pesto recipes since it's difficult to find basil here so I buy some times basil pesto but store basil pesto can be bitter in taste few times and it's spoils the whole pasta anyways basil pesto is not we going to talk about today.  Recipe of the day is Broccoli Pesto Pasta I make broccoli pesto in a different ways but when I saw this recipe in Raks blog I knew I going to make this as it's really easy, quick and taste good.

Eggplant Pomodoro Pasta Recipe

I make pasta most of the times for dinner either Friday or Saturday’s and that’s why I don’t have the vast collection of pasta recipes in blog since no more I take pictures in night, otherwise for the different experiments I do with pasta I would have had a long list.  Anyways this time for a change I made pasta for Saturday lunch and was able to click few images making the hungry souls wait!


If you are  bore or want to try something different from the usual pasta in white sauce or tomato sauce recipe, try this aubergine pomodoro pasta.  Only the name is bit complicated but the recipe is simple and quick.  Normally I make soup along with pasta to make a complete filling meal, some time I fix some quick salad or garlic bread or just add chips.  Anyways that’s me, you can make only pasta if you wish, this pasta is great as lunch box recipe too. 



Ingredients: [ Serves 4]

Pasta - 4 Cups
Long Eggplant - 1 around 300gms or 2 cups chopped
Minced Garlic - 1/2 tbsp
Tomatoes - 3 Large
Chopped Olives - 2 tbsp [optional]
Freshly Ground Pepper - 1/2 tsp
Paprika - 1 tsp
Italian Herbs - 1 tbsp
Salt - To Taste
Olive Oil - 3 tbsp


Method:

1. Put a pot of water on to boil, add 1 tsp of salt, add pasta in boiling water and cook until just tender or follow instructions on package.  Drain pasta and rinse in cold water, keep aside.
2. Chop onion, tomato and dice eggplant.  Heat oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add garlic and sauté until light golden brown. 
3. Add onion and sauté until translucent, now add eggplant and cook, stirring occasionally, until just softened, about 5 minutes in medium to high flame. Add chopped Add garlic and cook, stirring, until fragrant, 30 seconds to 1 minute. Add tomatoes and cook until it get’s mashed.
4. Add salt, herbs, olive, paprika, pepper and stir well, cook for 3-4 minutes again until everything blends well and tomato is mashed fully.
5. Finally add the cooked pasta and mix well.  Adjust pepper, salt if required.

Serve warm with soup and salad of your choice.  I made cabbage soup and serve along with some chips, a perfect weekend meal.



And this goes to Shama's Fast Food Evet - Pasta.

Variations:

~ Try this with any type of pasta and any variety of eggplant too.
~ Adjust paprika and pepper to taste.
~ You can use green olives or just skip the olives if you don’t have it.
~ If you don’t have paprika with you, no worries add 1 tsp of red chili powder or grind dry red chili to make flakes and add 1 tsp
~ You can add parmesan or any other cheese of you choice in the end over pasta.

Have a nice day ~~

Prawn Aglio Olio Recipe

Aglio Olio pasta recipe was first introduced to me by my sister, she made it home and I liked it instantly.  I tried to do same here Fusilli with stir fried veggies but as you can see I totally modified the recipe and added veggies, I still do this too as it’s again one of the easy pasta recipe.  Coming back to aglio olio it has to be one of the most easy and quick pasta, the main flavour to this dish is garlic and olive oil so make sure to use good quality of olive oil.   If you have last minute guest then this recipe can work as a charm, pair it up with a salad or soup and you have a grant meal to impress your guest or your family.  And you will be amazed how easy and quick to make aglio olio, if you wish to have vegetarian version then just skip the prawns, it taste delicious with out it too but be generous with olive oil. 

Ingredients: [Serves 2]

For Pasta

Spaghetti - 180 gms [ to serve 2] - I used wheat spaghetti

Water - to Boil

Salt - 1/2 tsp

Oil - 1 tsp

For Sauce

Olive Oil - 3 tbsp

Garlic Large Pods - 4 [chopped 2 tbsp]

Chilli Flakes - 2 tsp [divided]

Red Chilli - 1 [fresh or dry]

Prawns - 12-14

Parsley - 3 tbsp [chopped]

Salt - to taste

Method:

1. Bring a large pot/pan half filled with water to boil, add salt, oil, pasta and cook as per instruction in pack or around 10-12 minutes in medium flame until al dente (cooked and tender to tooth).

2. Reserve 1/4 cup of water and drain rest of it, give spaghetti a cold bath ie keep under tap water and toss it, keep aside until ready to use.

3. Remove the shells and veins from the prawns.  Mix 1/2 tsp salt with prawns and keep aside.

4. In a pan heat olive oil add garlic, chilli flakes and sauté in slow heat until oil is infused with garlic flavour but garlic is not burnt.

5. Add prawns, 1 tbsp of parsley. chopped chilli and cook both sides in slow-medium heat for 3-4 minutes, add 2-3 tbsp of reverse water and cook for another 2-3 minutes.  Add more water if required to cook prawn. 

6. Add spaghetti and toss well.  Add salt (keep in mind we already have salt in prawns and pasta) and toss again.  Garnish with remaining parsley and chilli flakes.

Serve hot/warm with any drink.

Variations:

~ Use any pasta of your choice.

~ You can use chilli padi instead of chilli flakes.

~ For vegetarian version, just keep the prawn and follow rest of instruction,  It taste great by itself. 

Have a nice day ~~

Fuseli with Roasted Beetroot Pesto

If you follow my blog by now you must know how much I love beets (beetroot), thus having quite a decent variety of beetroot recipes here and the best thing - ‘ I am not a beetroot fan’ DH also likes beets now and brings it without fail on his every trip to Little India.  Always I will make beetroot dal of one beetroot and another one either beets masala or experiment recipe. This time I wanted to try something new and end up making beetroot pesto.

  This pesto was actually better than I thought, roasted beetroot flavour is amazing and lemon adds the extra zing plus helps to reduce beets sweetness. Cashew bring creamy texture to pesto as you can see in the pictures, I didn’t add cheese in pesto just used a little for garnishing.   Beets pesto can be serve along pasta or use as dip or as a spread over bread, making it a beautiful versatile recipe.  If you like me or want to try something different and interesting with beetroot then you have to try this ..oh ya it does taste just so wonderful. 


Ingredients: [Serves 4-5]
For Beetroot Pesto
Beetroot - 1 (around 300gms)
Cashew nuts - 1/2 cup
Chopped Garlic - 1/2 tbsp
Olive Oil - 1/4 cup [I used extra virgin]
Lemon Juice - 2 tbsp [divided]
Parmesan Cheese - 3 tbsp + for garnishing
Salt & Pepper - To taste
Water - 2-3 tbsp [if required]
For Pasta [ for 2 person]
Fuseli - 2 cups [ or use any variety of pasta]
Salt - 1/2 tsp
Oil - 1 tsp
Water - To boil pasta

Method:
To make Pesto
1. Wash and roast beetroot over on stove top or boil it.

Or you can roast beets on oven.  If roasting in oven, slice beetroot, brush slices with oil and roast in 200C preheated oven for 30-40 minutes or until beets gets cooked, turn beets slice in 10 minutes interval so it’s gets cooked properly.

~ If you roast whole beets it will take around 1hour+ to cook.
2. Take beets out of oven and let it cool, when it’s cool enough to handle peel skin and chop beets. [If your beetroot is cooked properly the skin will come out easily]
4. Add chopped beets and all other ingredients (reserve 1 tbsp lemon juice)  in a mixer or blender & pulse into smooth paste/pesto.  Add 2-3 tbsp of water if required to pulse into smooth pesto.  [ I added 2 tbsp water]. 
Looks how creamy and beautiful it looks, I just loved it

And our pesto is ready to use.

To cook Pasta
4.  Bring a large pot/pan half filled with water to boil, add salt, oil & pasta and cook as per instruction in pack or around 10-12 minutes in medium flame until al dente (cooked and tender to tooth).
5. Drain pasta and reserve 1/2 cup to 1 cup of water, rinse pasta under tap water, toss and keep aside.
For Assembly
You can place cooked pasta on a plate and add pesto on top, sprinkle little parmesan cheese on top.

OR add reserve water and pesto in pan, bring it boil, add cooked pasta, mix everything well.  Add reserve 1 tbsp lemon juice and off flame. garnish with cheese.  Let the pasta sit for 10 minutes before you dig in.

Have it with salad or soup to make it a filling meal.  You can serve this pasta along lemon wedge if anyone want to reduce beetroot sweetness.

Pesto stay good for 2 day if refrigerated.  And to know what I did with my leftover pesto, stay tune..I have something interesting to share
Have a nice day ~~

Spaghetti with Spinach Pesto Recipe

Remember my Orange Marble Cake and Tutti Frutti Cookies?  Well, I made also spaghetti with spinach pesto for main course.  I like pesto and to make our own pesto it’s wonderful, since it’s difficult and also expensive to get fresh basil leaves in Singapore I try different pesto and this spinach pesto I adapted from Prathibha’s Spinach Pesto Penna Pasta, I made the pesto in simple and quick method to suit my needs.


The pesto was smooth, creamy, rich and delicious, not to mention healthy too and that’s the reason it become hit among friends, they really loved it.  The colour of pesto depends on what kind of spinach we use, I use round spinach here and not the Indian dark green spinach.  This is a wonderful lunch box recipe, add colourful veggie like carrot, bell peppers, mushroom etc for kids. Here I used wheat pasta but you can use any pasta of your choice and it’s very easy and quick to prepare so looking at the method do not think it’s a long procedure.


Ingredients:

For Spinach Pesto [ serves 4-5]
Spinach - 1 Medium Bunch
Parsley - 1 small bunch [ around 10-12 stalks]
Walnut - 1/4 Cup [ you can also use pine nut or almonds]
Olive Oil - 1/4 Cup
Parmesan Cheese - 1/4 Cup [ cheddar cheese is fine too]
Garlic - 2 pods
Fresh Grounded Pepper - 1 tsp
Lemon Juice - 1 tbsp [ I didn’t use]
Salt - to taste
Water - to blanch spinach
For Pasta Assembly
Spaghetti - 3/4 of pack or as needed
Olive Oil - 2 tbsp + 1 tsp [ I used extra virgin]
Minced Garlic - 2 pods
Finely Chopped Carrot - 1
Sliced Capsicum - 1 [or half of green/yellow/red colours]
Italian Herbs - 1 tsp
Salt and Pepper - to taste
Water - To boil pasta


Method:

For Cooking Pasta
1. Follow the instruction on pack or in a large pot boil water, add salt, 1 tsp oil add spaghetti or pasta and cook over medium flame for 10-12 minutes or until pasta gets cooked but not over-cooked.
2. Reserve 1 cup of water and drain rest of it, give spaghetti a cold bath ie keep under tap water and toss it, keep aside until ready to use.
~ If you are using the cooked pasta after couple of hours then every 1/2 hour keep the pasta under tap and toss it to keep it separated. 
For Pesto
As the pasta is getting cooked, prepare the pesto.
1. Boil water in a large pot, add salt and washed, chopped spinach and blanch (cook) for 2 minutes.  Drain and rinse under tap water.
2. Blend spinach with all other ingredients for pesto into smooth sauce.  The texture of sauce will be little coarse and that’s fine. 
~ Add 2-3 tbsp of reserve water if required while blending.


For Assembly
1. In a pan heat oil, add garlic and sauté until golden brown, add capsicum and carrot and sauté for 2-3 minutes or until it’s gets cooked.
2. Add pesto and give a stir, now add 1/2 to 1 cup of pasta cooked reserve water (depends on how thick you like your sauce, I added 3/4 cup) and bring it to boil.  Add herbs, salt and pepper to taste.
3. Now add cooked pasta or spaghetti and mix everything well, off flame Or while serving add the sauce on top of spaghetti. 
Our pasta is ready, have it with drink of your choice.


Notes:
~ Add 1tsp chilli flakes if you like during the assembly.
~ Top up the pasta with 1-2 tbsp of parmesan cheese in the end.
~ You can skip the assembly part cooking, ie just add the pesto with cooked pasta. It also taste good.
~ Use the pesto by next day if refrigerated.
Have a nice day ~~

Pasta In White Sauce

If you have notice in most of my pasta recipes I use tomato sauce.  I hardly make white sauce for pasta but when I do once in a blue moon then it has to be this way, I add little of garlic which adds nice flavor and onion for crunch.  You can add any seasoning but I like to add italian seasoning which adds good aroma and flavor to the dish.  If you want to make simple and quick pasta or for kids then this is for you. 

Before moving over to recipe, Wishing all readers Happy Raksha Bandan, hope you guys have great day celebrating it and receive good gifts :D.  If you are still unsure what to do on this wonderful day then check my Rakhi Events rounds here  to get some ideas. 

Serves - 2

Ingredients:

Pasta - 1 1/2 Cups [ I used tri colour fusili]

Salt - 1/2 tsp

Oil - 1/2 tsp

Water - For Boiling

For White Sauce 

Butter/Olive Oil - 1 tbsp

Garlic Pod- 1 [ optional]

Onion - 1/2 [optional]

All Purpose Flour - 1 tbsp

Milk - 1 Cup

Italian Seasoning - 1 tsp

Salt & Pepper - To Taste

Method:

1. Boil water in a large pot add salt, oil and pasta and cook until pasta gets cooked but not over cooked.  Follow the instruction on pack.

~ I used here tri colour fusili to bring colours to dish :D 

2. Drain pasta in a colander and rinse it under tap water, keep aside.  Meanwhile we can work on the sauce. 

3. Chop garlic and onion.  In a pan melt butter in slow flame, add chopped garlic and saute for 30 seconds.  Add onion and sauce for a minute (all this have to be done in slow flame).  Add plain flour mix well and saute for a minute, take care not to burnt it.

4. Now add milk, use a whisk to blend everything together, this also avoids any lumps.  Simmer in slow flame until sauce becomes thick for around 2 minutes. 

5. Add pasta, salt, pepper and Italian seasoning and stir gently.  Cook in flow flame for a minutes or until pasta n sauce comes together. 
~ You can add some parmesan cheese for nice chessy taste, kids will love that.

Serve hot/warm with soup and salad of your choice.  It's good to have the pasta while it's still warm as cold it doesn't taste good, at least I feel that.

If you are going to eat pasta later or have left over then add 1-2 tbsp of milk or water and heat it for 2 minutes or microwave for 1 minute before eating.   I'm happy to send this to Lubna's Joy from fasting to feasting IV.

Have a nice day ~~

Fusilli with Stir fried Veggies

This is one pasta recipe which is quick, easy and tasty.  U got to try it to believe ;) just like me.  When my sister told me about this recipe I was bit skeptical but I'm glad that I tried it and amazed with the dish. 

Along with pasta I tried a quick fix garlic bread, broccoli & potato salad along with mix veggie soup;  what a meal huh? Well, all of these are pity easy and quick to make so no worries.

All we need for 2 persons:

Ingredients:

Fusilli - 1 cups [ use any other pasta type ]
Olive Oil - 2 tbps
Garlic pods - 2
Veggie - 1/2 cup [ any thing of your choice, I used capsicum, carrot and beans]
Dry red chili - 6 [ according to taste ]
Italian seasoning - 1tbs [ any seasoning of your choice ]
Salt - 1 1/2 tps [according to taste ]
Water - 3-4 cups


Method:

1. Boil pasta in lots of water 1/2 tsp of salt and oil.  Once pasta cooked drain and run over tap water for 1-2 mins and keep aside.

2. Slice all the veggies and red chili, mined garlic.

3. In a pan heat oil add garlic and fry for a min followed by dry red chili and saute for a minute too.

4. Add all the veggies and fry 3-4 minutes in medium heat or until the veggie become tender.

5. Add cooked pasta and season with salt, Italian seasoning.  Give a good stir, cook for 2mins. 

This goes to Sowmya's Cooking with Pasta.  Along with my other old dishes.

Pasta with Stir fried Veggies

Spinach Spaghetti with Tomato Sauce

Pasta with Tomato Sauce

Fusilli with Eggplant

Enjoy your meal.