Rigatoni with shallots, tomatoes and red bell pepper

I wanted to make a simple pasta dish and decided to whip this up with fresh tomatoes. I am not a big fan of the canned tomatoes or the too much red sauce on my pasta. And no I don't use fresh Parsley ever. It gives a weird flavor and I do not like it. Sue me now ;).

Ingredients:
Rigatoni - 1/2lb
Roma Tomatoes - 3 chopped
Garlic - 3 cloves minced
Shallots - 1 minced
Red Bell Pepper - 1 finely diced
Milk - 1/4 cup
Fresh Parmesan Cheese - 1/4 cup.
Salt and Fresh pepper - to taste
Olive oil - 2 Tbsp.
Butter - 1 tsp.
Dried Parsley - 1/4 tsp.

Procedure:
- Cook the pasta according to package directions with enough salt..
- In a medium pan, heat oil and butter.
- Add shallots and garlic and cook for few seconds making sure garlic is not burning.
- Add the red bell pepper. Season with salt and pepper.
- Once pepper starts to get soft, add tomatoes, cover and cook for 2 minutes till tomatoes start to wilt.
- Add cooked pasta to this and mix.
- Add milk and stir for 30 seconds. Check for seasonings.
- Take the pan off the stove, mix cheese and parsley and serve hot.

Macaroni Salad

I am not a big fan of sugary gooey macaroni salads. So I came up with this one which uses the left over ingredients from the fried egg sandwich I created the other night. Feel free to increase, decrease, add, remove the ingredients the way you want. This is all about your personal taste and style :).

Ingredients:

Macaroni - 2 cups cooked
Onion - 4 Tbsp. minced
Tomato - 1/4 cup chopped roughly
Sun Dried Tomatoes - 1/4 cup chopped
Garlic powder - 1/4 tsp.
Dried Basil - 1/4 tsp.
Olive oil - 2 Tbsp.
Salt and freshly ground pepper - per taste

Procedure:

- Mix everything except macaroni in a bowl. Set aside for 5 minutes.
- Add macaroni. Mix well. Adjust seasonings and serve.