Bolognese sauce

Bolognese Sauce 

There are some ordinary days which become really special with just about some ordinary activities. Sometimes its a long walk among the oak trees, sometimes its meeting a girlfriend over coffee which turns into a 4 hour chat session and then there are days when you make a classic roasted chicken or make bolognese sauce from scratch like today.

I followed www.lospicchiodaglio.it 's recipe and boy oh boy do I  recommend it. You do need a good 3 hours to make the sauce but its totally worth it.


Ingredients required

500gm beef mince (I used extra lean beef because I am kind of trying to eat healthy but I recommend the normal mince since a bit of fat adds a lot more flavour)
1 kg ripe tomatoes blanced and made into a paste
1 small carrot
1 stick of celery
1 small onion
1 leaf of fresh rosemary
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
Salt as per taste
Freshly ground black pepper as per taste
100ml red wine

Start by making sure your meat is absolutely defrosted if you have frozen the mincemeat from before. Its best to buy fresh mince the day you make the sauce.
Finely mince the carrot , onion and celery
Heat the oil and saute the finely minced carrot, celery and onion on low heat till its golden brown. Add the beef mince and saute till it browns and then add salt, freshly crushed pepper and the wine. Cook till the wine evaporates and then add the tomatoes and cook on low heat for 2.5 hours to 3 hours.

This sauce can be used for a number of dishes. Enjoy over some freshly cooked spaghetti or make a lasagna.

With a vegetarian husband I used a portion for myself to enjoy with wholewheat spaghetti and froze the rest to make a lasagna in the future.

P.S. When searching for recipes I found that most Italian ones use bacon fat along with olive oil but I skipped it to make it healthy but I would highly recommend using it since we all know a little fat adds a lot of flavour. 

Basil Parmesan Pesto

Basil Parmesan Pesto 

I cook because I love cooking. I love exploring new dishes. I love spending hours trying to find out about a dish which is unknown to me or even a known one not belonging to my culture.

I remember the first time I had made Basil pesto. Till 2 years ago you would not find pine nuts in Kolkata's market and so when I found it in Bombay I was overjoyed. I bought some pine nuts shelled them and made my basil pesto and I was in love with it. My husband hated the taste of basil but then I hardly cared because I was in love with it and his aunt who had visited us at the time liked it quite well. The freshness of basil with the cheesiness and the flavour of extra virgin olive oil with pine nuts is delicious.

Thanks to Google translator I am able to read blogs written in different languages and that is how I had come to know that Carbonara Sauce in fact does not use bacon but uses Guanciale (Pig cheek) and going by this video over youtube a chef from Italy explains how bacon and Guanciale are very different.

And then a few months back I bought 'La Cucina' by the Italian Academy of Cuisine. It beautifully categorizes dishes as per their region and what I did notice was the frequent use of a cheese called Pecorino Romano. This was last year and I was overjoyed to find it online and I loved its sharp taste and felt relieved about having a source for this widely used cheese in Italian cuisine.


Anyway soon enough I found it to be discontinued due to lack of demand. I felt really bad because so many dishes use the particular cheese. Anyway I was checking my favourite site for Italian dishes, 'Giallozafferano' and their pesto alla Genovese used Pecorino cheese. I checked out a few other sites and found the use of this cheese in all the recipes. This is where I thank Google translator. While its true that the translation can at times be terrible you basically understand the sentences and that is all that matters to me. Anyway I was a bit sad since I had bought a big bunch of Basil leaves and then I decided to ask Manuela about this use of cheese in the particular pesto . She writes from ManusKitchen  and is from Italy. Do check out her site for some fantastic recipes.

Anyway she confirmed my suspicion about Pecorino being an essential ingredient for Pesto alla genovese and told me Parmesan is the closest substitute but would be milder in taste.

Anyway I did still proceed to make a pesto and the result was fantastic in taste.

I adapted  'Giallozafferano''s recipe and am loving this.

I followed the recipe as closely as possible wiping the basil leaves with a wet cloth instead of washing them as mentioned and using my mortar and pestle and so in the end other than the absence of pecorino cheese this Basil Parmesan pesto is something that shall have a recurring presence in my kitchen. Here is hoping I get to source some Pecorino real soon.

Basil Parmesan Pesto

25gm basil fresh leaves
1 large garlic clove (In India the garlic cloves are much more small than its European counterpart and I needed 4 small ones)
50ml Extra Virgin Olive Oil
10gm Pine Nuts
Salt as needed
50gm Parmesan cheese (In case you get pecorino replace 50gm Parmesan with 40gm Pecorino and 15gm Parmesan)

75 dried gm pasta per serving


Start by pounding the garlic with salt and when it reaches a creamy state add the leaves bit by bit pounding them till they become smooth and then add the pine nuts and  then slowly add the cheese after grating it. Once it reaches a creamy consistency add the Extra Virgin Olive Oil bit by bit and enjoy it over pasta cooked al dente.

Penette E Pomodorini D'O Piennulo (Pasta with Tomatoes and basil)

Penette E Pomodorini D'O Piennulo 

(Pasta with Tomatoes and basil)

I used to think I make a decent Tomato based pasta be it the Arrabbiata or just a normal Tomato based Pasta . Well in my defense the sauce would mostly turn out flavourful and ever since I discovered al dente pasta I would in fact think I was creating quite the Italian dish in my kitchen.

Then one day I finally invested in La Cucina one of the best Classic Italian cookbooks of all times. You see I started cooking from a very tender age and to be able to afford a good book it does take a bit time. Your mid 20s are very different from your late teens. Anyway the point is I somehow believe that the mark of any good restaurant, cookbook or for that matter a cook lies in how he or she makes the most basic of dishes. Which is why I chose one of the simplest dishes of all times,

Now in these modern times when cooks can't seem to find their way around the kitchen with step by step photographs this classic book is quite the opposite. It has tons of exquisite recipes but not even one photograph which is quite fine by me. In fact you won't even find most of these recipes over the internet.

Well I am kind of an old fashioned world. People often ask me why a 25 year old (almost 26) would want to spend hours in the kitchen for a dish . Here is the thing I want to learn the characters of the dishes I cook and a dish's character can be traced back to its cuisine.

So if you really want to learn Italian cuisine a good old classic book is essential.

Anyway coming back to our recipe I was quite startled for a the technique used was completely different than not only what I usually use but what is mostly shared far and wide from across continents and chefs.

Now I somehow tend to be passionate and so I passionately believe that a cookbook brought by by the Culinary Acedemy of Italy will not leave any scope for mistakes. Period.

So I went about doing exactly what they had asked to. In the end I was dumbstruck. I have been to some of the fine dine restaurants of India in both Calcutta , Mumbai and Delhi and never have I tasted a tomato based pasta which had so much of flavour and the colour was the colour of passion, a deep red that I could romance with romance in my head  just by looking at it.

So here is what you need :-

Recipe :from La Cucina . Before I begin I must admit that for when I cooked the tomato sauce I halved the recipe and used half the time for cooking and being on an extreme low carb diet I used very little pasta and kept most of the sauce for later use. I am sharing the original recipe exactly as was given and I suggest you don't alter it.

1 lb Penne Pasta
1/2 lb ripe plump tomatoes blanced and skinned
1 large clove of garlic , minced
Pinch of chili flakes / Half a ripe red chili
Several Basil leaves chopped
Salt for taste
2/3rd cup EXtra Virgin Olive Oil


Chop the skinned tomatoes. Place the minced garlic and finely chopped chili with the oil and let it slowly brown . Once its browned take out the garlic and chili and add the chopped tomatoes and add salt and cook on high heat for 15 minutes stirring it and pressing it down with a masher or back of a big spatula from time time time.

While the sauce is cooking bring a pot of  water to a boil on another stove with a pinch of salt and add the pasta and cook till al dente and once done add it to the sauce and mix well and add some basil and serve.

I can promise you this is the most flavourful tomato based pasta ever.

The reserved Tomato 

Linguine in Bacon Pomodoro Sauce

Linguine  in Bacon Pomodoro Sauce 

Sometimes you need to make some changes to the original recipe because of lack of ease of availability of ingredients. So I was set on this beautiful Italian recipe but the cheese used is rarely available and my friend had come over  before I had ordered the required cheese. Needless to say I substituted the required cheese with another easily available Italian cheese and the result was scrumptious even with the change. I mean there is little chance of going wrong when you have bacon, Parmesan, a nice tomato based sauce heaped on pasta cooked al-dente

Serves 2 :-

180gm to 200gm dried linguine pasta
4 to 5 plump big tomatoes
2 fat cloves of garlic
1 large onion sliced very thin
3 fatty rashers of bacon
A good handful of freshly grated Parmesan cheese
Spray of olive oil

Simply boil your pasta as per instructions on the packet. For al dente be careful to take out the pasta and cook it for a minute less than the specified time. Now if the instructions ask you to boil the pasta for 7 minutes to 9 minutes start making your sauce after 4 minutes of boiling the pasta. Mince the garlic and chop tomatoes and slice onion. Now spray a pan with olive oil and fry the bacon and when its nicely done and you have a lot of bacon grease take out the bacon and  saute the garlic in the bacon fat and then add the sliced onion and finally the plump juicy chopped tomatoes and cook then for 1/2 a minute on high flame and add salt and then simmer covered to make a nice sauce and mash with masher and add 1 ladle of the pasta water . When you get a  thick sauce mix in the Parmesan reserving some to be sprinkled on each plate. Meanwhile keep an eye on the pasta and drain it and plate it and pour the sauce on top and add bacon and a sprinkle of Parmesan and serve

Spaghetti with sun dried tomatoes

Spaghetti with sun dried tomatoes 

So give me the simplest of Pasta recipes and I am a happy girl. You see unlike what many people think Italian food doesn't always require a lot of cheese or heavy sauces. Of course the meatball sauce is to die for but the pasta dishes I like best are so simple that when during the worst of the summers or for that matter even the pleasant winters its a real treat for people who enjoy individual flavours but likes keeping it simple. In fact I once came across a recipe for Spaghetti which simply used breadcrumbs and anchovies. Hard to believe but true.

While we are almost getting sun dried with this terrible weather in Calcutta I decided it was time to sun dry some tomatoes and 3 days of glorious basking in the sun led to a jar of flavoured delights . Once my sun dried tomatoes were ready I was only to excited to use them and then what I did was simply use it with my favourite pasta Aglio Olio peperoncino. Now many a restaurants will have you believe that Aglio Olio has a host of ingredients with olives chopped in , herbs , Parmesan but the simple truth is all it needs is garlic, chili peppers, salt, olive oil and Spaghetti or any other pasta. So this is simple, all I did was add in some Sun dried tomatoes  and a bit of herb and my pasta was bursting with flavours .

Here is what you need for each serving of this pasta dish  :-

100gm of Spaghetti
2 medium sized garlic cloves
2 ripe chili pepper
6 to 7 Sun dried tomatoes
1 tsp dried or fresh basil (With the scorching temperature most of my fresh herbs are quickly drying out and I simply grind them to make dried herbs)
1 tbsp oil from the jar of sun dried tomatoes (This bit makes the dish unbelievably tasty)
Salt as per taste

All you need to do is cook the pasta as per instructions and if you like it al dente as I do cook it one minute less than the given time on the packet. Drain the water. meanwhile heat 2 tsp of the flavoured oil and add minced garlic and let the aroma fill your kitchen and immediately add minced chili peppers and then salt and the cooked Spaghetti, add the basil and toss around and before serving drizzle with 1 tsp flavoured oil and the sun dried tomatoes and you are in for a treat if you like things simple yet bursting with flavours.

Aglio Olio Peperoncino

Aglio Olio Peperoncino 

The truth about some Italian pasta dishes is that it is so simple that many people cannot but put in some additional ingredients but the other truth is that nothing beats the amazing taste when the pasta is cooked in its original simple format. It takes a total of 8 minutes to prepare and is so comforting that it can easily become a pasta lover's comfort food. The famous Aglio Olio Peperoncino which literally transaltes to garlic oil chili pepper pasta.

I personally love this pasta because of the amazingly short time it takes and the ease with which it can be prepared. It has come to my aid many a times when I have approaching deadlines but quite honestly I love cooking this even when I have ample time on my hands for the amazing flavours and because of the few ingredients you get to enjoy each and every flavour individually .

Serves 1

What you need is :-

100gm spaghetti
1 gigantic clove of garlic
1 ripe red pepper chili
1 tbsp olive oil
2 tsp extra virgin olive oil
Salt as per taste

Cook the pasta as per instructions on the packet. Drain and then Mince the garlic as finely as possible, heat the olive oil and add the garlic but do not brown it , when the aroma spreads throughout your kitchen add the minced red pepper chili and then add salt and add the cooked pasta. Toss well and serve. Its delicious

Feast of love 2014

Love is in the air. Well to be frank Valentine's Day for me is much hyped yet the celebrations of the day is infectious. To be fair my husband and I feel even more loved when we make ordinary days into Valentine specials. I will be honest here. I believe that love for thyself is the greatest love one can have and only if you love yourself can you love another being with all your heart. I decided I needed some much needed pampering and my better part of the day was spent in one of my favourite places, Downtown Bombay. The architecture , the brilliant food and everything else is a romance in itself. I treated myself to a wonderful lunch and would highly recommend Cafe Churchill to anyone who loves Western Cuisine and happens to visit Bombay. I have written about My Experience of Cafe Churchill which left me in a much better mood for love.

So I shall revel my secret today. My husband and I are far from being romantic and I have realized that while I am completely head over heels in love with love itself I am not a very romantic person in reality. Most of my romance is swimming around in my mind. Thed other secret is that my green husband is not far from being passionate when it comes to culinary interest. Having said that I must mention that he has expressed his love for my cooking from the day I had put something on the table. So while I personally love love love elaborate lunches and dinners since we are Celebrating Valentine's day I decided my food should be an ode to love and so I prepared a dish which is cherished by my husband and well I love it as well. I bought a bottle of white wine to make the day a bit special and with enough praises from the bear half I was quite happy and might I say romantic as well. The surprise element was the dessert. You see my husband does not have a sweet tooth and more importantly he had expressed his utter repulsion for dark chocolates so while I cannot have my chocolates but dark, bitter, creamy silky he loves his chocolates milky and sweet.

 The surprising part was when I made some Dark chocolate Swiss truffles a few weeks back for my dear friend Claudia and well there were a few leftovers. I will go on to give a detailed description of what happened. I was in bed with Anna Karenina where she is madly in love when my bear half came over murmuring ' Mmmm Manjari , these are delicious. I love them' I looked up to find him relishing the dark chocolates truffles. I said, 'but you do not like dark chocolates' to which there was no reply since he kept popping one chocolate after the other in his mouth. My personal belief is that the cream which is used for truffles makes it a delight for all people unless they dislike chocolates.

So for dessert I decided on some Swiss Truffles. Now we did not actually have the dessert on Valentine's Day per say since both of us believe that any day can be Valentine's day and so my basic truffle was ready by the next day and even before I could roll them in the nuts or coat them with chocolate 7 of them were polished off by a man whose teeth was dark after the overindulgence. I couldn't be more happy. By night I was done with the coating and well who knew that the man who once despised desserts would pop in two more truffles.

So coming back to my food I chose Spaghetti alla Arrabbiata a dish which is cherished by my husband. Now usually I make Arrabbiata the old fashioned authentic way which simply uses garlic, olive oil, tomatoes and chilies and I love how you can play around with taste by adding a bit of basil on some days and a bit of parmesan on other days .I have personally even added red bell pepper with raving reviews. Here I must share a particularly important bit of information that I have learnt myself. You see most people would have you believe that Arrabbiata is incomplete without Parmesan or basil but that is not the case as I have mentioned already. Arrabbiata means angry and the pasta is called so due to the presence of ripe red chilies which give it is fiery taste. For a true gourmet feel do add the cheese and basil , it might not be absolutely authentic but is certainly tastes heavenly. The best part about this dish is that it hardly takes 15 minutes giving you ample time for other romantic activities.

What you need for 2 lovebirds :-

2/6 of 500gm pasta or a bit more if you have a strong appetite
5 to 6 plump tomatoes
4 to 5 garlic cloves (Indian medium size)
2 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
2 ripe red chilies
A good handful of grated Parmesan cheese
5 to 6 fresh basil leaves
Salt as per taste

Start by boiling your pasta as per instructions mentioned on the packet. Bring water to boil and add salt and pasta and cook as per instructions. It usually takes 10 minutes to 11 minutes . In the meantime mince your garlic as finely as possible, finely chop the chilies and chop those plump tomatoes and grate the cheese. Leaving 2 basil leaves finely chop the rest. When the pasta has cooked for 4 minutes start making your sauce by heating up 2 tbsp olive oil and saute the garlic. Saute the garlic but do not brown them one bit. Add the chilies and then the tomatoes and basil and cook on medium flame mashing them with a masher from time to time. When you see little bubbles lower the heat to low flame and add salt and cover . Once the pasta is done drain it and give the sauce a good mash so that it is smooth and simply mix the sauce with the grated Parmesan reserving about a tablespoon . Use a spatula to make sure that the cheese has melted which it anyways will due to the heat from  the sauce. Mix the spaghetti with the sauce and arrange in a pasta bowl or dinner plate and sprinkle Parmesan cheese and garnish with the basil leaves. Its simple easy , quick and a lover's delight. Oh by the way its red the colour of passion. Ah but did you know that basil is an aphrodisiac. So make anyday of the year a Valentine's special dinner with this easy simple delightful recipe which is tangy with the fresh sweetness of basil and the delightful fieriness and creamy cheesy taste.


Now what is Valentine's Day without some chocolaty indulgence.

Try some Swiss truffles, smooth silky soft and delicious inside with a nutty coating or a solid chocolate coating








This is part of Kolkata Food Blogger's Love on Plate  do check our Page for scrumptious dishes you might prepare for your romantic partner

Pollo Alla Milanese

So the most delicious things in life are the simplest ones. One such delight is the Pollo alla Milanese which is basically chicken breast beaten well to flatten it and then served with spinach and a tomato sauce but then Christmas is all about love is it not?

Well it actually goes back to the 26th when I was tryign to meet my deadline and was in a flurry of typing , listenign analsyizing etc and then the phoen rings and here si what happened:

H: "Where are you Manjari?" Me: " I am in my house why?" H: "Come out please" And holy Mother of God there he was standing in front of my house , my lanky bear of a husband. Well with his beard and all he can pass of as a bear , a lanky one at that standing with his luggage and a rose. Between transit to his hometown the dear man had made a stop and demanded that i immediately accompany him which was not possible since I had a deadline and a Christmas celebration which had been anyways fashionably postponed . With precious little time left since we came to an agreement of my traveling on the 30th I knew that a Dundee cake and whole roast would not be possible what with packing and all and so I decided on a simple recipe which did not require the oven.

So this cotoletta as the Italians would say might have originally been made of veal but i have read in blogs by people from that land of culinary delight that chicken is also acceptable hence from Cotoletta alla Milanese it becomes pollo (chicken) alla Milanese. Well authentic cotoletta is a cutlet fried bone in but i did get my chicken breasts all deboned from the butchers and used the bone for a fantastic stock for later usage .

Christmas is definitely all about relationships and so I had originally planned on the Pomodoro (tomato) sauce and spinach tossed around with garlic and olive oil but since I was going away I could help ask my best friend which sauce she would prefer and she said she would want the white based sauce and so the dish finally came to represent the Italian flag. My dear friend and cousin gobbled up both sauces and from the way they were engrossed in the dish I can say that my Christmas was most definitely a wonderful one. Now Bechamel sauce is essentially French but add a bit of nutmeg and Parmesan and you have Italian white sauce

Anyways the most obvious reason for choosing this lovely dish is because of its sheer simplicity and here is what you do

Use 1 chicken breast per person and flatten it with a mallet Ah but before that this is what you need

Chicken breast 1/2 per person
Salt and pepper
Olive Oil
Homemade breadcrumbs Handful for 2 breasts
1 egg per breast (again the size of eggs vary greatly)
Roughly 50gm all purpose flour per breast


For the pomodoro sauce (Tomato sauce)

8 large plump tomatoes
3 to 4 large sized garlic cloves which when minced should yield about 2.5 tbsp garlic (You see the size of the garlic varies from place to place)
Salt and pepper
2 to 3 tsp red chili flakes
Handful of fresh basil
1tbsp extra virgin olive oil

For the special Italian bechamel sauce

3 tbsp of silky smooth almond paste
3tbsp unsalted butter
3 cups of whole milk
6 tbsp cream
Pinch of nutmeg
Salt and pepper
A good handful of Parmesan cheese

For the spinach

I used about 500gm of spinach
3 tbsp minced garlic
Olive oil
Salt and pepper

The recipe is basically very simple.

Start with the sauces . Simple blanch the tomatoes and chop chop chop. Use about 4 tbsp olive oil and saute minced garlic and add the chili flakes and half the chopped basil and quickly add the tomatoes and stir and cook on medium flame till it bubbles and add salt , pepper and the rest of the basil then mash a bit and simmer till you get a thick sauce.

For your white Italian bechamel sauce simply melt the butter and add the smooth nut paste and the milk and quickly add salt, pepper , nutmeg half the cheese and stir continuously so that no lumps are formed to make a smooth silky sauce and then add the other half of the cheese and mix well. You can also first bring the milk to a boil with the nutmeg salt and pepper and simmer it for 5 to 7 minutes then melt butter add nut paste and the flavoured milk and cheese and simmer while stirring continuously.

All you need to do is flatten the chicken a bit and season with salt and pepper and then simply roll around in the flour and then dip in whisked eggs and coat well with breadcrumbs so that no bit is left un-coated and then fry in the olive oil. The flavour of this cutlet comes from the frying in olive oil and this one must never substitute with other oils else it seizes to be Pollo alla Milanese from Italy and believe me the flavour of the olive oil fried cutlet is superb. Here is a little tip with your breadcrumbs. The fresher it is the better it is of course and nothing beats homemade ones but adding a bit of salt, pepper and dried oregano gives an amazing flavour.

Once you are done with the chicken. Simple add 5 to 6 tbsp olive oil to a hot pan and add the minced garlic and the chopped spinach and cook on high heat for not more than 3 minutes to retain the colour and flavour. Over-cooking renders the spinach bitter.

You have your beautiful meal waiting for you and everybody to appreciate

Gatto Di Patate (Potato Pie all the way from Italy)

So when there is a special lunch to be prepared you take your time on deciding the menu. You read so many articles that you become confused and then suddenly you hit the jackpot. A treasure of a blog all the way from Italy. A dish which is cheesy, creamy, fluffy and meaty and one you  know you shall serve it no matter what. Extremely easy this one is a keeper. It seems this is very popular in both Sicily  and Campania . of course I did use locally smoked ham instead of mortadella but the end result was that every crumb was licked clean off the plate.

You need:

500gm potatoes
Pinch of nutmeg
8 tablespoonful of Parmesan cheese
100gm of mozzarella cheese
Salt as per taste
1 large egg
200gm of smoked ham
3 to 4 tablespoonful of unsalted butter
250gm breadcrumbs

Boil and mash potatoes with the egg, salt, nutmeg , butter and Parmesan cheese. Butter the pan and fill it with breadcrumb which helps in de-moulding the pie else it will stick to the sides and you can never get it out. So be generous when sprinkling with the breadcrumbs. Now fill half the pan with the mashed potatoes and press down with wet hands and top it with breadcrumbs , add your meaty layer and on top of it goes the thinly sliced mozzarella cheese and then the rest of the mashed potatoes and top it with a good amount of breadcrumbs. Bake in preheated oven of 180 C for 45 minutes. This is a real treat.

Aubergine stew

The Healthy Aubergine stew inspired by Jamie Oliver and Sicily 

Say what you will but I am a firm believer of hearty Sunday brunches and healthy weekday lunches. You see while I believe that the beautiful rich gravy for the Sunday Chicken roast or the delightfully regal Murgh - E- Shalimar or that excellent breakfast with plump sausages and bacon or the deep fried Puris are all an ode to marvelous taste I believe that we should give due respect to our health for which we survive at all.

So come Monday and its usual work,not swamped with work but work nevertheless. So at 10:30 the hunger pangs suggests I have a snack but my mind says a fuller meal for having stupidly eaten 1 square of dark chocolate and tea in the morning. After a bit of debate I decide on brunch. Hmm! Now what to do , what to do the fish is all frozen, did not want chicken after yesterdays's roast chicken and so finally look in my folders for previously collected recipes and remembered the two plump aubergines and  picked up Oliver's 'Incredible Sicilian Aubergine Stew'. What a lovely delightful brunch. Aubergines sauteed in olive with the robust flavour from plump tomatoes. With my new found principle of fresh is the best discareded the sue of bottled olives and capers. Swapped the parsley for beautiful aromatic basil because ah basil and tomato are the couple in love forever. a small addition of less than half a teaspoonful of chili flakes and of course the usual garlic I present Healthy Monday Aubergine brunch.  had to settle for the home dried basil leaves instead of fresh herbs because well I am again a  firm believer of wastage being a sin.                                       P.S. The sprinkle (salt and water ) , cover method really helps cook the vegetables extremely fast :)

So here is what goes in

2 lovely plump aubergines
4 plump tomatoes
1 heaped tsp oregano leaves
1 tablespoonful of red wine vinegar but adjust as per your liking for tangy taste
Chopped basil leaves say less than a handful
Freshly ground pepper (I used about 20 peppercorns )
1 medium sized very finely sliced onion
4 to 5 garlic cloves. reduce number as per size of increase it mine were standard Indian medium sized ones
Less than half a tsp chili flakes
olive oil

So chop aubergines in chunks, not too big else it takes too long a time for cooking. Mince your garlic, Finely slice the onions and chop the tomatoes in chunks. saute aubergines in olive oil , not too much . add onions and garlic once aubergines are cooked.  I use my own trick here by using 2 tablespoonful of oil and then frying on high heat for say 1 minute and adding the onions and garlic and then I sprinkle salt and oregano , sprinkle water and cover for the aubergines to be cooked well with using less oil but just a sprinkle of water please else it becomes boiled :P . then add your red wine vinegar and let it evaporate and add tomatoes, chili flakes and basil. Cook for 15 minutes or more till vegetables are thoroughly cooked yet not overcooked on low heat . Again i do cover and add a sprinkle of water. And then there you go with a healthy lunch . Enjoy it with whole wheat or multigrain bread. Flat bread goes well with this as well. I served with white bread since I was out of any other bread and had mine without and sides but thats too extreme and would not recommend that.

Lemon Linguine Pasta

Lemon Linguine Pasta
Inspired from Sicily 

I do not like how or why our restaurants in India constrict the idea of pastas from the land which is a culinary lover's delight. I have been gathering recipes for different pasta recipes from blogs, chefs which seem very unheard of and are simple and would make such intense love to your taste buds that it , well it makes you feel happy.

Jamie Oliver mentions the fragrance of the Sicilian lemons which gives this dish its unique flavour. Of course I used the fresh lemons available in my local market since I don't have access to Sicilian Lemons and the pasta still turns out quite delicious.

The original recipe demands fresh rocket leaves which I could not procure in Calcutta, so I omitted it. Frozen food usually has no place in my pantry.

So I used the following ingredients

Serves 1 :-

80gm to 100gm Linguine pasta
A handful of Grated Parmesan
2 tsp juice from the freshest of lemons from the local market
1 tsp chopped Fresh basil leaves which are found in plenty in the vegetable section of New market or any other place you can procure it from.
1.5 tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil
lemon zest

This is what I did while rats and moles were playing volleyball in my stomach. Boiled and drained the pasta.
Whisk the lemon, olive oil and cheese reserving 2 tsp of the grated cheese and mix with the warm pasta and add the basil. Sprinkle some grated Parmesan on top