What happens when your pantry is low on everything, INNOVATION!!!!
That is exactly what happened- with my dad's encouragement, I tried my own pasta recipe for the first time ever. It all started when I thought I had some of the usual pasta like farfelle or rigate and therefore picked up a recipe with lentils and stuff. Well, I did not have any of those, but at least had spaghetti. The other ingredients on hand were red pepper, onions, crushed tomatoes, left over pasta sauce (I could not use all of it because my mom did not like the super-garlic taste in that sauce, it is store-bought you see!) and flat-leaf parsley. The only thing consoling about this whole thing was the fact that it was going to be a healthy mixture and probably an ideal candidate for Monthly mingle # 29. But I decided to make it more healthy by adding some split green lentils. Well this experiment reminds me of the Lynne's "Splendid Table" (she actually tries to come up edible recipes from the ingredients that the callers have on hand and guess who judges it -Chris Kimble!). So here is how it goes,
Pasta with lentils
Ingredients
1/2 cup lentils, boiled
1/2 red pepper, thinly sliced (I used 1 whole pepper)
1/2 red onion, thinly sliced
1/2 cup parsley, finely chopped
1-1 1/2 cups crushed tomatoes
3 tbsp of store-bought tomato sauce
salt & pepper to taste
red chilli powder, a pinch
1 tbsp of Italian seasoning
Olive oil or EVOO as RR puts it!
Saute the onions and red pepper in olive oil.
Add the crushed tomatoes and the left-over sauce and let it hang-out for a minute or two.
(I added little salt and pepper in every step)
Then add the cooked lentils, the chopped parsley, the seasoning and the chilli powder.
Let it cook until everything had blended well and it is of a more saucy consistency (to me it is some sort of a Indian kootu type sauce!)
Cook the whole-wheat spaghetti according to the directions. Serve the sauce over pasta and garnish with some grated parmesan cheese.
I also made some lemony roasted potatoes and the recipe for it came from here
4 small red potatoes, cubed (leave the skin on)
3-4 tbsp of olive oil
2 tbsp of lemon juice
1/2 tsp of lemon zest
2-3 tsp rosemary
salt & pepper to taste
Preheat the oven to 375F
Combine oil, lemon juice, lemon zest, salt and pepper in a saucepan and just slightly heat it.
Add the rosemary and potatoes to the lemon mixture and mix well.
Arrange the potates in a baking sheet, spread the lemon mixture (if there is any left over) evenly.
Place the baking sheet in the oven and bake until lightly browned (30-40min).
Oh so how did it taste, you might want to ask me- I would say I really enjoyed it. It turned out to be something different. The only thing is you will need more sauce on spaghetti than the usual.
That is exactly what happened- with my dad's encouragement, I tried my own pasta recipe for the first time ever. It all started when I thought I had some of the usual pasta like farfelle or rigate and therefore picked up a recipe with lentils and stuff. Well, I did not have any of those, but at least had spaghetti. The other ingredients on hand were red pepper, onions, crushed tomatoes, left over pasta sauce (I could not use all of it because my mom did not like the super-garlic taste in that sauce, it is store-bought you see!) and flat-leaf parsley. The only thing consoling about this whole thing was the fact that it was going to be a healthy mixture and probably an ideal candidate for Monthly mingle # 29. But I decided to make it more healthy by adding some split green lentils. Well this experiment reminds me of the Lynne's "Splendid Table" (she actually tries to come up edible recipes from the ingredients that the callers have on hand and guess who judges it -Chris Kimble!). So here is how it goes,
Pasta with lentils
Ingredients
1/2 cup lentils, boiled
1/2 red pepper, thinly sliced (I used 1 whole pepper)
1/2 red onion, thinly sliced
1/2 cup parsley, finely chopped
1-1 1/2 cups crushed tomatoes
3 tbsp of store-bought tomato sauce
salt & pepper to taste
red chilli powder, a pinch
1 tbsp of Italian seasoning
Olive oil or EVOO as RR puts it!
Saute the onions and red pepper in olive oil.
Add the crushed tomatoes and the left-over sauce and let it hang-out for a minute or two.
(I added little salt and pepper in every step)
Then add the cooked lentils, the chopped parsley, the seasoning and the chilli powder.
Let it cook until everything had blended well and it is of a more saucy consistency (to me it is some sort of a Indian kootu type sauce!)
Cook the whole-wheat spaghetti according to the directions. Serve the sauce over pasta and garnish with some grated parmesan cheese.
I also made some lemony roasted potatoes and the recipe for it came from here4 small red potatoes, cubed (leave the skin on)
3-4 tbsp of olive oil
2 tbsp of lemon juice
1/2 tsp of lemon zest
2-3 tsp rosemary
salt & pepper to taste
Preheat the oven to 375F
Combine oil, lemon juice, lemon zest, salt and pepper in a saucepan and just slightly heat it.
Add the rosemary and potatoes to the lemon mixture and mix well.
Arrange the potates in a baking sheet, spread the lemon mixture (if there is any left over) evenly.
Place the baking sheet in the oven and bake until lightly browned (30-40min).
Oh so how did it taste, you might want to ask me- I would say I really enjoyed it. It turned out to be something different. The only thing is you will need more sauce on spaghetti than the usual.
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