“A man’s nature runs either to herbs, or to weeds; therefore let him seasonably water the one, and destroy the other.” Francis Bacon, Sr.
Do I know my herbs? Well I thought I did, & was basking in my limited glory until I saw Helen’s beautiful Thyme shortbread cookies @ Tartlette. Hmmmmm, I thought, how come my oregano looks like her thyme? I got the seeds a while ago, & my gardener planted them. He’d never seen these herbs & I’ve only seen dried ones that looked more like green tea most of the time! Helen wrote to me when I left her a quizzical comment. A few pictures exchanged, & my life was put on the right herb track by the lovely lady!!My first exposure to herbs was Simon & Garfunkel’s first masterpiece, ‘Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme‘, so you can imagine my childhood connections with herbs. They sounded so exotic, while the only herbs we literally grew up on here were mint, coriander & Indian basil/tulsi. Basil happened to me a few years ago when a friend gifted me a plant. I passed on her good deed, & got many friends addicted to fresh basil! Then one day, not too long ago, Coco @ Purple Foodie mailed me some fresh herbs from Mumbai. I was elated, treated them like gold … & was well & truly bitten by the herb bug! Thyme came to my notice on Val’s chicken post @ More Than Burnt Toast sometime back, & I couldn’t wait for the pot to flourish. Thankfully I saw Tartlette’s cookie post, or my thyme would’ve been oregano, & vice versa!! Here are 2 recipes I bookmarked, made & we enjoyed both immensely. They are light & healthy, great for the summer that is here now, & are quite fuss free. That’s what I liked about both. The chicken is from Val’s lovely blog @ More Than Burnt Toast, a blog I have been visiting for long. The pasta recipe is from Bron’s beautiful blog that I discovered recently @ Bron Marshall. She has stunning pictures & her blog is absolutely refreshing!
These are off to Bookmarked Recipes, being hosted this week by hosted by Tami @ Tamis Kitchen Table Talk. I often wonder what I would have done if blogging hadn’t happened to me, other than thinking thyme was oregano of course!!
Ingredients: 1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil Finely grated zest of 1 lime 1- 1/2 T fresh lime 2 T thyme leaves 4 garlic cloves, minced Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper 2 tomatoes, thinly sliced 6 chicken breast; sliced horizontally into 2 each Thyme leaves for garnishing Method:
In a large bowl, whisk 1/4 cup of the olive oil with the lime zest, lemon juice, thyme, garlic and a generous pinch each of salt and pepper.
Spoon 1- 1/2 tablespoons of the mixture into a medium bowl, add the tomatoes and turn to coat.This is something that I really liked about Val’s recipe. The flavours ran right through the tomatoes beautifully.
Add the chicken to the large bowl and turn to coat. Let the tomatoes and chicken stand at room temperature for 30 minutes. (I leave the chicken overnight in the fridge sometimes)
Heat the grill pan. Add the chicken to the grill, season with salt and pepper and grill over high heat, turning once, until cooked through and lightly charred, about 6 minutes.
Serve hot with pasta, & the marinated tomatoes on the side.
Where did Spring go? Was here a couple of days ago … now it’s just sweltering HOT!!
Ingredients: 1 cup of shelled walnuts, toasted and roughly chopped 2 Red Capsicums, charred, peeled and chopped 400gms of short pasta such as macaroni, penne. (Bron used a beautiful pasta called De Cecco -Galletti) 2 T olive oil 4 small garlic cloves, finely chopped 2 tablespoons chopped thyme & oregano, or another fresh herb Sea salt and freshly ground black pepperMethod:
Toast the walnuts either in a dry skillet or oven at 200°C until golden and chop them roughly.
Bron says…Scrape the blackened skin off the capsicum, resisting the urge to rinse it under water as this will remove a lot of the delicious smokey flavour. Discard the seeds and stalk, chop the flesh and set aside.
Cook the pasta in the large saucepan of salted boiling water for 10-12 minutes or until al dente.
Drain and return to the pan with the olive oil, finely chopped garlic, walnuts, capsicum, chives and or other herbs and toss well to combine.
Add sea salt and pepper to taste. Serve immediately with the grilled chicken & marinated tomato slices, & a little grated Pecorino or Parmesan cheese if desired.
The pasta is also off to Presto Pasta Nights, the brainchild of Ruth @ Once Upon A Feast. This weeks round-up is being hosted by Katie of One Little Corner of the World.
Happy after the success of my precious jar of Sun-dried tomatoes, it was but natural progression that I began to explore recipes that these delcious morsels figured in. I was looking to make a pasta for Noob Cook who is hosting #101 edition of Presto Pasta Nights, a weekly food blog event focused on cooking with pasta and all types of noodles. Sadly, I missed the 100th edition last week.
Enter The Pasta Bible … a book my elder sis had gifted me eons ago. It was well thumbed pages & is an interesting resource which offers you something for every season, veg or non-veg, light or luxuriously indulgent, cream or tomato based sauces, & I love sitting & poring over it. Fusilli con salsa diPomodoriall’AcetoBalsamico… sounded exotic & delicious to me. Armed with my jar of sun dried tomatoes, I found this delicious recipe for fusilli which used tomatoes, sun driedtomatoes & also balsamic vinegar, another of my recent passions. That was the one I wanted to make. The original recipe is a vegetarian one, but to make it exciting for the kids, & a meal in a bowl, I added some chicken mince meatballs. So what if I was breaking away from trsitional spaghetti!I developed the recipe for the meatballs from an earlier ChickenReshmi Kebabs recipe which I use often, tweaking the seasonings from Indian to Italian. Adding yogurt made the meatballs soft & juicy. Following ValsMore Than Burnt Toast for ages, have figured that thyme & chickencompliment each other, so some fresh thyme went in too.
FUSILLI WITH TOMATO & BALSAMIC VINEGAR SAUCE …with meatballs
Fusilli con saldadiPomodoriall’AcetoBalsamico…con Polpettine (?)
Adapted from The Pasta Bible, pg 92
This is a modern CAL-ITAL recipe (Californian/Italian). The intense, sweet-sour flavour of balsamic vinegar gives a pleasant kick to the sauce.Serve the pasta with a salad & shaved Pecorino handed separately. I added chicken meatballs for variety. For a vegetarian version, omit the meatballs. TOMATO & BALSAMIC VINEGAR SAUCE
Ingredients:
800gms tomatoes; peeled & chopped (or 2 X 400g/4oz cans chopped Italian plum tomatoes)
5-6 halves of drained sun dried tomatoes; snipped (original recipe had 2 pieces)
6 cloves of garlic; minced (original recipe had 2 cloves)
3 tbsps olive oil
3 tbsps balsamic vinegar
1 tsp granulated sugar
Salt & freshly ground black pepper
350-400gms fusilli
Method:
Put the tomatoes, sun dried tomatoes, garlic , olive oil & sugar in a pan. Add salt & pepper to taste. Bring to a boil, & then simmer for about 30 minutes until reduced. (I ran an immersion blender lightly through it to get a smoother sauce because of the kids, but you can leave it as it is if you like)
Add the balsamic vinegar to the sauce & stir to mix evenly, cook for 1-2 minutes, adjust seasonings if required. Meanwhile cook the pasta.
While the fusilli is cooking, fry the meatballs.
CHICKEN MEATBALLS
Ingredients:
500gms chicken mince; from thigh tenders
1 small onion; quartered
4 cloves garlic
Handful of thyme & oregano leaves (I used fresh; dried herbs will do too)
1 tbsp of Italian seasoning
1 heaped tbsp of thick yogurt
2 tbsp olive oil
Juice of 1/2 a lime
Salt to taste
1/2 tsp red chili flakes (optional) Method:
Put onion, garlic cloves, fresh herbs into processor & pulse for short intervals till chopped fine.
Add remaining ingredients, including mince & pulse till well mixed. Chill for at least 30 minutes.
Make tiny balls & shallow fry till golden brown all around.
When the last batch is done, turn the prepared sauce into the pan, add all the meatballs & simmer for 5 minutes.
Pour over the freshly cooked pasta & serve immediately.
Psychgrad & Giz @ Equal Opportunity Kitchen are hosting the weekly round-up of Presto Pasta Nights this week. Presto Pasta Nights is the brainchild of Ruth & it’s amazingly on it’s 81st week. Pasta is a more than welcome option at home at any meal, so here’s an entry to PPN.I’ve had this Bon Apetit‘Mixed-herb Pasta’ recipe from Epicurious in my bursting folder for long but the only herbs I had were basil…& loads of it. Then one day the courier came with a well packed box & beautiful handwriting. Excitedly opened it to find the sweetest smelling fresh sage that Coco @ Ambrosia mailed to me from Mumbai. I jumped with joy as I love fresh herbs; sage is something that has been elusive for far too long. Coco told me she’d send me some as there was a place in Mumbai that sold fresh herbs. She’d included some fresh oregano but unfortunately the leaves didn’t survive the journey. There was rosemary too, but someone nicked the box with the rosemary…grrrrrrrrrr! I wanted very much to make a loaf of bread with a great crust etc…but was BANNED from making anything ‘exciting‘ on the cuisine front since the daughter was going to be away for the next 3 days on a school adventure camp. She made me swear I wouldn’t bake bread while she was away…& so I didn’t! I eventually made some mixed herb pasta because the sage was calling to me. Made some sage-potato salad & some canapes using the sage too. I loved my first experience with this wonderfully textured velvety herb. Thanks Coco…I love blogging & fresh herbs even more now!!
Mixed-Herb Pasta with Bell Peppers and Feta adapted from Bon Appétit April 2002 Ingredients: Olive oil – 3 tablespoons Red bell pepper – 1 large, cut into thin strips Yellow bell peppers – 1 large, cut into thin strips Garlic cloves – 6 large, finely chopped Dry white wine – 1 cup Fusilli – 300 gms (the original used spaghettini) Mixed fresh herbs – Coarsely chopped 1 1/2 cups(such as basil, parsley, tarragon, mint, and sage) Feta cheese – 1 1/2 cups,crumbled
Method:
Heat oil in heavy large skillet over high heat. Add peppers and cook until crisp-tender, stirring frequently, about 3 minutes.
Add garlic; sauté 1 minute. Add wine; boil until reduced by 1/3, about 2 minutes.
Meanwhile, cook pasta in large pot of boiling salted water until just tender but still firm to bite, stirring occasionally. Drain, reserving 1/4 cup cooking liquid. Return pasta and reserved cooking liquid to pot.
Add pepper mixture, herbs, and cheese. Toss gently but thoroughly until cheese begins to melt. Season to taste with salt and pepper and serve.
If you like, you can garnish the pasta with fried sage leaves.
Note: Don’t be tempted to decrease the quantity of herbs as the pasta will taste bland.
This post is also off to dear Ning @ Heart & Hearthwho is guest-hosting this week’s ‘Bookmarked Event’ for Ruth @ Ruth’s Kitchen Experiments. Have a good week Ning & happy hosting!! If you have anything bookmarked & if you’ve had the time to make it, do blog about it & send it to bookmarked recipes HERE. Remember to check out the round-up next Monday.
Thought I’d also share some pictures of the ‘The Himalayan Bear Stream Camp’ which my daughter attended last week. The 7th graders from school went to this beautiful adventure camp nestled in the foothills of the Himalayas…& had a fantastic time.
“The trouble with eating Italian food is that five or six days later you’re hungry again.”
George Miller
PENNE IN A CREAM MUSHROOM SAUCE
Here’s my entry for Presto Pasta Nights hosted by a great blog ‘Once Upon a Feast’ which I enjoy reading tremendously. You will find some great meal ideas here.
A versatile, simple recipe. I like to make this with penne because the sauce holds on better, though find it works well with even spaghetti. I have got great reviews on this, and always get a recipe request whenever I serve it. This is the vegetarian version. For a non-vegetarian version, toss in grilled/ chopped chicken when the pasta is mixed in with the sauce.
Ingredients:
Olive oil – 2 tsp Garlic – 4-6 cloves / chopped Onion – 1 / chopped Button Mushrooms – 200gms / sliced Red Chilly flakes – 1/4 tsp Oregano – 1 tsp Green chilly – 1 / chopped ( optional; however, it brings out a nice flavour) Milk – 1/2 cup / cold Cornflour – 1 tsp (dissolved in the milk) Light Cream/Half n half – 100ml Gouda Cheese – 2tbs/grated ( any cheddar does as well too) Salt and pepper to taste
Method:
Heat the oil in a pan with the onion and garlic put in. Simmer for a while till the flavours get released.
Add the mushrooms, chilly flakes, oregano and green chilly. Sauté till the mushrooms release their liquid.
Add in the cold milk, stirring continuously to avoid forming lumps. Once thickened, put on low heat.
Add the cream and grated cheese. Season with salt and pepper.Simmer till the cheese melts through. Once warm, blend the sauce to get required consistency. Don’t blend it too much. The sauce tastes better with a slightly chunkier,fullish consistency. Set aside.
Penne – 250gms (can use any short pasta; or even spaghetti)
Cook pasta on in plenty of salted,boiling water till aldente.
Drain and mix into the sauce. Serve immediately as the pasta continues to absorb the sauce the longer it sits.
Note: Leftovers can be reheated and served later, though most of the sauce would have been absorbed. Still tastes as nice though the sauce isn’t visible.
Serve with sauted vegetables, salad and garlic bread.
