Pasta Aglio Olio Recipe

Preparation 15 mins
Cooking 15 mins
Serves 4-5

Ingredients:

100 gm butter
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
8 cloves garlic, chopped
500g fusilli pasta, cooked according to packet instructions, reserve 1 cup pasta water
1 tsp sea salt (use normal salt it unavailable)
1 tsp black pepper
10 dried chilies, soaked in water for 15 minutes and sliced into thin strips

Cooking Instructions:

Melt butter in a large pan over medium heat. Add oil and garlic. Stir for 1 minute until softened and oil begins to bubble. Add ½ cup pasta water, salt, pepper and chilies.

Increase the heat, add cooked pasta to pan and toss. Add remaining ½ cup pasta water. Toss again. Serve immediately.

Spaghetti with Seafood Sauce Recipe

Ingredients:

3 tbsp olive oil
1 onion, chopped
1 garlic clove, finely chopped
8oz spaghetti
2 ½ cups passata (bottled strained tomatoes)
l tbsp tomato purée (paste)
1 tsp dried oregano
1 bay leaf
l tsp sugar
2 cups cooked peeled prawns (shrimp)
6oz cooked clam or cockle meat (rinsed well if canned or bottled)
1 tbsp lemon juice
3 tbsp chopped fresh parsley 2
2 tbsp butter salt and ground black pepper


Cooking instructions:

Heat the olive oil in a large pan over low heat. Add the onion and garlic and cook, stirring occasionally for about 7 minutes, until softened but not colored.

Meanwhile, cook the spaghetti in a large pan of boiling salted water for according to the instructions on the packet, until just tender.

Stir the passata, tomato purée, oregano, bay leaf and sugar into the onion mixture and season to taste with salt and pepper. Bring to the boil, and then simmer for 3 minutes.

Add the prawns, clams or cockles, lemon juice and 2 tbsp of the parsley. Stir well, then cover and cook for an extra 7 minutes.

Drain the spaghetti, return to the pan and add the butter. Using two large spoons, toss well to coat, then season with salt and pepper.

Divide the spaghetti among four warmed plates and top with the seafood sauce. Sprinkle with the remaining parsley and serve immediately.

Pasta & Lentil Soup recipe

Ingredients:

1 cup dried brown or green lentils
6 tbsp olive oil
¼ cup finely diced beef
1 onion, finely chopped
1 celery stick, finely chopped
1 carrot finely chopped
8 cups chicken stock or water
1 fresh sage leaf
1 fresh thyme sprig or 4 tsp dried thyme
2 cups ditalini or other small soup pasta
Salt and ground black pepper to taste
Crusty bread, to serve

Cooking instructions:

Carefully check the lentils for small stones. Place them in a bowl, add cold water to cover and leave to soak for about 3 hours. Drain, rinse and drain well again.

Heat the olive oil in a large, heavy pan over low heat. Add the beef and cook, stirring occasionally, for 3 minutes.

Add the onion and cook gently, stirring occasionally until softened but not colored for about 5 minutes.

Stir in the celery and carrot and cook, stirring frequently, for a further 5 minutes. Add the lentils and stir to coat them evenly in the cooking fats.

Pour in the stock or water and add the sage and thyme. Increase the heat to medium and bring the soup to the boil. Lower the heat, cover the pan and simmer gently for about 1 hour or until the lentils are tender. Season it to taste with salt and pepper.

Stir in the pasta, increase the heat to medium and cook for about 10 minutes, until it is just tender. Remove the pan from the heat and leave to stand for a few minutes. Ladle the soup into warmed soup bowls and serve with crusty bread.

Pasta & Dried Bean Soup Recipe

Ingredients:

1¼ cups dried borlotti or cannellini beans
400gram can chopped plum tomatoes, with their juice
3 garlic cloves, crushed
2 bay leaves
6 tbsp olive oil, plus extra to serve
3 cups water
2 tsp salt
2 cups ditalini or other small pasta
3 tbsp chopped fresh flat leaf parsley
Ground black pepper to taste
Freshly grated Parmesan cheese, to serve

Cooking instructions:

Place the beans in a bowl, add cold water to cover and leave to soak overnight. Drain the beans, rinse and drain well again.

Place the beans in a large pan and add water to cover. Bring to the boil and cook for about 10 minutes. Drain, rinse and drain again, then return them to the pan. Add enough water to cover them by 1 inch.

Stir in the tomatoes with their can juice, the garlic, bay leaves and olive oil and season it with pepper. Bring to the boil, then lower the heat and simmer until the beans are tender for about 2 hours. Add more water during cooking if necessary to keep the beans covered.

Remove and discard the bay leaves. Pass about half of the bean mixture through a food mill or process to a purée in a food processor. Stir the purée into the pan with the remaining bean mixture. Add the measured water and bring the soup to the boil.

Add the salt and pasta. Stir, and then cook until the pasta is just tender. Stir in the parsley.

Remove the pan from the heat and leave to stand for at least 10 minutes. Ladle the soup into warmed soup bowls and serve with extra olive oil for drizzling and grated Parmesan cheese for sprinkling.

Healthy Recipes - A Delicious Pasta Recipe That Will Boost Your Immune System

Love tomatoes and pasta? Did you know they can be combined to boost your immune system? This healthy pasta recipe does just that.

Every day, your immune system battles the millions of bacteria, microbes, toxins and viruses that try to invade your body. But this complex and highly interactive network of organs and specialized cells can help keep you healthy only if it's healthy itself. So how do you make sure your immune system stays strong? Along with getting enough sleep and exercise, and keeping your stress level down, a low-fat, high-fiber, nutrient-rich diet will keep your immune system in top-notch condition. Research suggests that the following vitamins and minerals, in particular, regulate a wide variety of immune system functions:

Vitamin A
B-complex vitamins
Vitamin C
Zinc
Selenium
Magnesium

While it's a good idea to take a vitamin and mineral supplement to ensure you're getting the nutrition your body needs, you obviously want to get as many immunity-boosting nutrients as you can from the food you eat. The following recipe, rich in the vitamins and minerals listed above, offers a delicious way to keep your immune system strong:

Mexican Pasta Serves 4

Ingredients

1 tablespoon olive oil
3 green onions, thinly sliced
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1/2 lb lean ground beef or ground turkey
1 tablespoon chili powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 can (14½ oz) stewed tomatoes, chopped
1 jalapeño pepper, finely chopped
1/3 cup shredded Monterey Jack or cheddar cheese
1/4 cup chopped cilantro
8 oz package bow- or corkscrew-shaped whole wheat pasta

Directions

Cook pasta according to package directions. Drain well and place in a large bowl.
Heat oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add green onions and garlic and cook 30 seconds.
Crumble in ground beef. Sprinkle with chili powder and salt. Cook, stirring frequently, about 5 minutes, or until beef is no longer pink.
Add tomatoes and their juices, and jalapeño. Bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce heat to medium; cover and cook 5 minutes.
Pour sauce over pasta.
Sprinkle with cheese and cilantro. Toss to mix.

For another immune-system-building pasta recipe and to access a user-friendly herb and supplement encyclopedia, visit Melinda Banks' blog at MyOnlineHealthArticles.com.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Melinda_Banks

A Delicious Rice Cooker Pasta Recipe

Pasta can be one of my favourite foods. However, I only really enjoy it when it's lovingly home cooked, as it enables the food to be served the minute it's ready. And the quality of ingredients is easier to verify. Onions and garlic are essential. And mushrooms and bell peppers are excellent vegetables for balancing the meal, both in terms of flavor and nutrition.

This delicious pasta dish can be cooked using a rice cooker. It is suitable for people who do not have hobs at their disposal. For example, I use it in my office, where we only have a microwave and rice cooker.

The meal contains a lot of vegetables, and can therefore be view as healthy from that point of view. However, I like to add a block of cheese, which you may want to leave out. I also used minced beef to add protein. Though I'm trying to cut down on meat and may leave that out too in the future.

Ingredients

Fusilloni Pasta

Garlic

Onion

Basil

Oregano

Vegetable Stock

Olive Oil

Mushrooms

Bell Pepper

Cooking Instructions

Take the minced beef out of the refrigerator about 30 minutes before you start cooking. Cold mince is harder to stir.

Add the pasta to the rice cooker. Some rice cookers come with a rubber pad to stop the pasta sticking to the bottom of the rice cooker. If you have one, use it, otherwise don't worry about it. Cover the pasta with cold water.

Finely chop the onion and garlic. I used 6 cloves of garlic, and 1.5 onions. Add them to the rice cooker.

Chop the mushrooms into quarters and the bell pepper into small 1cm squares. If you want a fine sauce, chop the vegetables into even smaller portions. Add these to the rice cooker.

Season the mixture with salt and pepper. And add the oregano, basil and vegetable stock.

If using cheese, chop it unto 1cm cubes and add it to the mix.

Finally, add the minced beef.

Pour over a healthy amount of olive oil and mix up the food.

Turn on the rice cooker and let it all cook.

Potential Issues

There are a lot of ingredients in this recipe, and smaller rice cookers may not cope. If the rice cooker goes to "keep warm" mode too soon, and the food obviously isn't cooked yet, then take out half of the mixture and continue cooking the remaining half. The removed mixture can be cooked afterwards or saved for another day.

About The Author

Jon C is the head chef at dawjee.com. He believes that providing his staff with good nourishing meals enables them to perform more productively.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Jon_C

How To Make It's All In The Family's Vegetable Patch Lasagna

Let's talk lasagna. I don't know about you, but I love it in all its forms. What could be better than pasta sandwiching yummy melting cheese drenched in herbs and any type of filling you can think of (with some exceptions of course). While I am not a Vegetarian sometimes I think there is nothing better than sinking your teeth into bright and fresh vegetables cooked into pasta. That is what a vegetable lasagna is for (see you get all the good carbs too).

Surprisingly enough, pasta is actually not from Italy, it started with the Etruscans in 400 B.C. They had stranger versions of it, but it was pasta nonetheless. Greeks and Romans took their part in it before the Arabs brought it to Italy. The rest is noodle history.

"At least lasagna must be Italian" you say, but it actually was formed in the English court of King Richard II in the 14th century. Fear not, the lasagna that we love today wasn't lasagna until the Italians had their way with it.

In this article I chose to share a vegetable lasagna recipe, because using lots of vegetables is in the spirit of cherishing the old farming methods and traditions of the Italians. It has been very popular for men in Italy (since about forever ago) to use gardening as a hobby. Tasty to the core, I believe that their greatness comes from the fact that so much love is put into them. You see, a garden is, and has been, the way for Italian men to take pride in knowing that they are providing for their families by providing food for them that they grew themselves.

All in all we can agree that Italians love wine, love their vegetable gardens, make great pasta, and have a terrific knack for making the perfect lasagna. There is nothing better than hearty lasagna filled with three cheeses and fresh hearty vegetables.

Don't believe that your lasagna will fly without meat? Try this recipe, you won't be disappointed....in fact, I dare you.

Here it is:

"It's All In the Family's Vegetable Patch Lasagna"*

Ingredients: 12 oz shredded mozzarella cheese, 12 uncooked lasagna noodles, ¾ cup Basil Pesto, ¼ cup copped fresh parsley, ¼ cup chopped fresh basil, 2 cups non-fat milk, 1 pound bag of thawed broccoli flowerets, ¼ tsp salt, 1 egg, 1 and ½ tbs all-purpose flour, 1 and ½ tbs whole-wheat flour, 3 coarsely shredded carrots, 15 oz ricotta cheese, 3 tbs butter, 1 finely chopped clove of garlic, 14.5 oz can of Italian diced tomatoes drained, ½ cup grated Parmesan cheese, and 1 medium red bell pepper cut into thin strips.

1) Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees

2) Cook and drain noodles as directed on their package

3) In a large mixing bowl mix the broccoli, carrots, tomatoes, bell pepper, Basil Pesto, and salt. In another mixing bowl mix the ricotta cheese, Parmesan, parsley, basil and the egg.

4) In a saucepan melt the butter over medium heat. Cook the garlic in the butter for about 2 minutes stirring constantly. Stir in the flour. Stir constantly until mixture is smooth and bubbly. Stir in the milk. Heat to boiling stirring. Boil and stir for one minute.

5) Place 3 noodles in an ungreased 13 x 9 inch pan. Spread half of the cheese mixture on the noodles, top with 3 more noodles. Spread with half the vegetable mixture. Sprinkle with a third of the mozzarella. Top with three more noodles, spread with the remaining cheese mixture. Top with last 3 noodles. Spread with the remaining vegetable mixture. Pour sauce on the top. Sprinkle with the rest of the mozzarella.

6) Bake for about 45 minutes. Let sit for 10 minutes before serving.

7) Enjoy the hearty richness of an Italian Garden.

Likely Page Break
*Base of recipe from Betty Crocker and I molded it from there.

Notes: Facts for this recipe were found on http://www.vegetarian-fun.com/vegerec6.html

Rachael Rizzo has been acting since she was nine years old. She uses her experience to write about what the things she loves mean to her (mostly movies and baking). She is twenty-three years old and resides in beautiful Oregon.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Rachael_Rizzo

Ravioli With Brains

Take one lamb's brains and parboil in slightly salted water for five minutes. Put into a bowl with a small quantity of curds, one egg, salt and pepper, dash of nutmeg, and a little grated Parmesan cheese, and mix all together. Then put by teaspoonfuls on the paste as in preceding receipt. Cook for ten minutes in boiling salted water, and serve with tomato sauce.

Ravioli With Meat

Prepare the paste as in the preceding receipt.

Take whatever meat is desired--chicken, turkey, or veal--this must always be cooked. (Left-over meat may be utilized this way.) Chop the meat very fine, add one tablespoon of grated Parmesan cheese, one egg, a dash of nutmeg, a dash of grated lemon-peel, one tablespoon of butter, cold. Mix these ingredients in a bowl. Take a teaspoon of the mixture and put it into the extended paste, about two inches from the edge. Take another spoonful and put it about two inches away from the first spoonful. Continue to do this until you have a row of teaspoonfuls across the paste. Then fold over the edge of the paste so as to cover the spoonfuls of mixture, and cut across the paste at the bottom of them. Then cut into squares with the meat in the middle of each square; press down the paste a little at the edges so the meat cannot fall out. Continue to do this until all the meat and the paste are used up.
Put the little squares of paste and meat into the boiling salted water a few at a time, and boil for ten minutes. Serve with tomato sauce, or butter and grated Parmesan cheese.

Ribbon Macaroni

(Pasta fatta in Casa. Fettuccini)
2 1/2 cups of flour
2 eggs
3 tablespoons of cold water
1/2 teaspoon of salt

Put the flour on a bread-board. Make a hole in the middle of it, and break the eggs into it. Add the water and the salt, and mix all together with a fork until the flour is all absorbed and you have a paste which you can roll out. Then take a rolling-pin and roll it out very thin, about the thickness of a ten-cent piece. Leave it spread out like this until it has dried a little. Then double it over a number of times, always lengthwise, and cut it across in strips about one-half inch wide. Boil two quarts of salted water, and put the ribbons into it, and cook for ten minutes, then drain. Serve with the meat and sauce as in receipt for Macaroni with Meat and Sauce, or with the tomato sauce and cheese only, as desired.

Macaroni "Alla San Giovannello"

While three-quarters of a pound of macaroni are boiling in salted water prepare the following: Chop up fine two ounces of ham fat with a little parsley. Peel six medium-sized tomatoes, cut them open, remove the seeds, and any hard or unripe parts, and put them on one side. Take a frying-pan and put into it one scant tablespoon of butter and the chopped ham fat. When the grease is colored put in the sliced tomatoes with salt and pepper. When the tomatoes are cooked and begin to sputter put the macaroni into the pan with them, mix well, add grated Parmesan cheese, and serve.

Timbale Of Vermicelli With Tomatoes

(Neapolitan Receipt)

Take ten medium-sized fresh tomatoes and cut them in two crosswise. Put a layer of these into a baking-dish with the liquid side touching the bottom of the dish. Now put another layer with the liquid side up, sprinkle on salt and pepper. Break the raw vermicelli the length of the baking-dish and put a layer of it on top of the tomatoes. Now add another layer of the tomatoes, with the skin side touching the vermicelli, a second layer with the liquid side up, salt and pepper, and another layer of the raw vermicelli, and so on, the top layer being of tomatoes with their liquid side touching the vermicelli. Heat three or four tablespoons of good lard (or butter), and when the lard boils pour it over the tomatoes and vermicelli; then put the dish into the oven and cook until the vermicelli is thoroughly done. After cooling a little while, turn it out into a platter.

Vermicelli With Olive-Oil, Olives, Capers, And Anchovies

Take one-half pound of vermicelli and cover it well with salted water. Cook for about ten minutes. While it is boiling put into a saucepan four tablespoons of olive-oil, three anchovies cut up fine with six olives (ripe ones preferable) and one-half tablespoon of capers. When these are fried add the vermicelli (well drained), mix well, and put the saucepan at the back of the stove. Turn the vermicelli over with a fork every few minutes until it is thoroughly cooked.

Vermicelli With Olive-Oil And Anchovies

Take one-half pound of vermicelli, boil in salted water and drain. While boiling put into a saucepan three anchovies, cut up fine, with four tablespoons of olive-oil. Fry the anchovies in the oil, then put the vermicelli into the saucepan, mix well for a few moments on the fire, then serve.

Sicilian Macaroni With Eggplant

Slice one eggplant and put it under a weighted plate to extract the bitter juices. Then fry the slices delicately in lard. Make a ragout of chickens' hearts and livers as follows: Put two tablespoons of butter into a saucepan, fry the hearts and livers, and when cooked add two tablespoons of tomato paste, thinned with hot water (or a corresponding amount of tomato sauce). Cook for fifteen minutes.

Prepare three-quarters of a pound of macaroni, boiled and drained, then put it into the saucepan with the hearts and livers, add the eggplant and three tablespoons of grated Parmesan cheese. Mix well together and serve.

Macaroni With Butter And Cheese

Boil and drain the macaroni. Take four tablespoons of table-butter, three tablespoons of grated Parmesan cheese, add to the macaroni in the saucepan, mix well over the fire, and serve.

Macaroni With Tomato Sauce

(Maccheroni al Sugo)

2 quarts of water
3/4 pound of macaroni

Boil the water until it makes big bubbles. Add salt, then break the macaroni and put it in. Cover the saucepan and boil for fifteen minutes. The saucepan should not be too small, otherwise the macaroni will stick to the bottom.

Prepare the sauce as follows:

Take a good slice of ham fat, and chop very fine with it a piece of onion, a piece of celery, and some parsley. Then put this into a frying-pan and cook until the grease is colored. (If desired, add a small lump of butter.) When well colored add two tablespoons of tomato paste dissolved in a little hot water. Boil all together for fifteen minutes.

Drain the macaroni, and put it into the frying-pan with the sauce, mix well with fork and spoon over the fire, so that the macaroni will be thoroughly seasoned, then add three tablespoons of grated Parmesan cheese, mix again, and serve.

If no tomato paste is available make the tomato sauce as follows:

Chop up fine one-quarter of an onion, a piece of celery the length of a finger, two or three basil-leaves, and a small bunch of parsley. Slice seven or eight tomatoes (fresh or canned), add salt and pepper, and put all on together to cook in four tablespoons of good olive-oil. Stir occasionally, and when it becomes as thick as cream, strain, and add the macaroni as before directed.