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.

Penne Alla Vodka and Curried eggs

I committed a crime last night. You see, I swore I will never do anything to original Italian recipes. Oh well I lost it last night. I got too creative. Granted it wasn't a perfect match but the dish was good. And no, I don't make my sauces from scratch all the time. Especially anything that involves liquor like Vodka. I have alcoholics in the house who will finish those before I get the bottles to the kitchen ;).

I pressure cooked beaten eggs. If you do not have a pressure cooker you can cook these eggs in frittata style.

Ingredients:

Whole wheat penne pasta - 2 cups dry
Vodka Sauce - 1 heaping cup
Large Eggs - 3
Egg whites - from 3 eggs
Onions - 1/2 cup sliced thin
Olive oil - 1tsp + as needed for pasta
Curry Powder - 1 tsp. ( I bought Mccormicks brand)
Garlic powder - 1/4 tsp.
Red Chili flakes - per taste
Salt - as needed
Freshly ground pepper - per taste
Butter - to coat a pan

Procedure:

- Beat eggs, egg whites with curry powder, garlic powder, slat and pepper, 1 tsp. olive oil till well blended.
- Transfer this into a butter coated vessel and pressure cook for about 15 minutes till cooked.
- Loosen the edges of the vessel and transfer it into a plate. After cooked it should look something like below. Cut it into bite size pieces and keep aside.



- Mean while, cook the pasta according to package instructions with oil and salt. When the pasta is 3/4ths cooked, heat oil in a wide skillet.
- Add red chili flakes, onion slices and suate till onions are golden brown. Season them with salt.
- Add the steam cooked egg pieces to this and saute for 30 seconds, remove form the pan and keep aside.
- Bring the pan back on to the stove and heat the vodka sauce. If the sauce looks too thick add 1/4 cup of pasta cooking water to it.
- Add the pasta to the sauce and mix well for a minute or to.

- Transfer the pasta into a bowl and add the curried egg on top.

Shrimp Scampi Suji's Style

I love Ina Garten and her recipes. I saw her Shrimp Scampi and decided to come up with my own version. I made this a little spicy because, well because that's just how I like it but you can adjust the spicyness per your taste:).

Ingredients:
Extra Large Shrimp - 12 cleaned and deveined
Angel Hair Pasta - 1/2 lb
Shallots - 1/2 cup minced
Garlic - 3 Tbs minced
Juice of one lemon
Basil - 1tsp dried
Red chilli powder - 1 tsp
Red Chilli Flakes - 1 tsp
Parmesan Cheese - 1Tbs
Salt - to taste
Butter - 1tsp
Olive oil - as needed

Procedure:
Marinate shrimp with 1tsp minced garlic, little bit of lemon juice, salt and the red chilli powder and keep it aside. In a shallow pan heat olive oil and add the shrimp and cook :2-3 minutes per side. WHile you are cooking the shrimp, cook the pasta per package directions.

Take the shrimp out ( do not throw the marinade away yet). In the same pan, add butter. Add dried red chilli flakes and garlic and shallots. Add little bit salt and saute till soft. Turn the flame to high and add the shrimp and the marinade and 1/4 cup of the pasta cooking liquid and lemon juice.

Add the pasta to this and stir. Add parmesan cheese and basil. Remove from flame and serve with a side of garlic bread sticks.

I usually add freshly ground black pepper at the end just for the taste

Leeks and lasagna soup

I wanted to make leek and potato soup. So I looked up the recipe on Williams-Sonoma but it seemed too much. I didn't have butter and cream as their recipe suggested. So I looked into my pantry and noticed I had few lasagna sheets left over. This is what I came up with. You can use elbow macaroni too if you don't want the lasagna sheets.

Ingredients:

Leeks - 2 cups roughly chopped
Carrot - 2 cups peeled and cubed
Celery - 2 cups finely chopped
Baking potato - 1 large peeled and cubed + 1 large boiled and mashed
Lasagna sheets - 4 broken into pieces
Vegetable broth - 1 8oz can
Red chilli flakes - 1 tsp
Garlic powder - 1 tsp
Dried Parsley - 1tsp
Black pepper - 2tsps freshly ground
Salt - to taste
Oil - as needed

Procedure:
Heat oil in a pan. Saute the leeks with little salt, garlic pwder, red chilli flakes and parsely till they are soft. Add carrots, potatoes and celery. Add just enough salt for the veggies and saute them for 3 - 4 minutes.

Add the vegetable broth and 1 cup of water. Bring it to a boil. Once the vegetables are tender, add lasagna sheets and 2 cups of water and the mashed potato. Check for salt and add if needed. Stir in the black pepper powder and cook till lasagna sheets are done.

Turn of the flame and serve it with garlic bread on the side:).