Pasta with Pesto and Arrabiata Sauce

Hello!

In the last blog, had shared the recipe for Pesto Sauce. You can find it here.

Sharing the recipe of how I enjoy the Pesto Sauce and Arrabiata sauce with lots of vegetables.
Feel free to add as many as as less vegetables as you like. :)

Preparation Time: 20 mins
Cooking Time: 15 mins

Ingredients:
Pasta
1 Bottle Arrabiata Sauce (I prefer Barilla brand)
10 - 15 garlic cloves
15 - 20 black olives
2 medium size onions, diced
1 yellow capsicum, diced
1 red capsicum, diced
4 - 5 green beans, finely chopped
1 carrot, finely chopped
1 packet of mushrooms, cooked
few broccoli florets
1 small cup green peas, cooked
1 small cup boiled sweet corn
4 - 5 Italian or Thai basil leaves, roughly chopped
Olive Oil
Salt
Dry / Fresh Oregano

Preparing the Pasta
Boil the pasta of your choice in plenty of water with salt and a teaspoon of oil till al dante which means till just cooked.

Drain and set aside to cool.

The amount of time taken for pasta to cook will depend upon the brand you are using. Most of the brands mention about the time on the packets. But at times it can take even more or less, so keep checking the pasta.

Tip: Don't let the pasta stay in the hot water for longer, else it will get mushy while mixing it with sauce.

Steps:

1. In a pan, add around 2 - 3 tablespoon of olive oil and let it heat just a little
2. Add all of the garlic to it and fry till garlic is light golden
3. Add the vegetables that need a little more time to cook like carrot, beans and broccoli
4. Once the first set of vegetables are done, add other set of vegetables that have to be cooked but should still be crunchy like onion, yellow capsicum and red capsicum
5. Add salt to taste
6. Add the final set of already cooked vegetables like green peas, sweet corn and mushrooms
7. Add black olives and dry/fresh oregano
8. Add the Arrabiata sauce (I put in the contents of the whole bottle.)
9. Add small portion of pesto sauce and mix it with the Arrabiata sauce. Keep adding more Pesto sauce to taste.
10. Once the sauce mix with vegetables is ready, add the pasta
11. A nice generous drizzle of olive oil to enhance the flavors

Sit back and enjoy the nice yummy pasta! :)

If you try it out, do share the experience!!

Enjoy!

Yum Yum Pesto Sauce!

Hello!

On special request (and after many reminders ;)) sharing the pesto sauce recipe.
I don't have pictures of the cooking process as of now, but will plan to take it and share when I make the sauce next time :)

Preparation Time: 20 mins
Cooking Time: 10 mins

Ingredients:
1 packet of Italian or Thai Basil, washed and roughly chopped (I like the Italian more :))
2 medium size onions, chopped
15 - 20 cloves of garlic (whole garlic cloves is also fine. chop them up for extra garlic flavor)
1 teaspoon of milk cream / 2 teaspoon of milk
Salt
Olive Oil

Optional ones:
5 - 6 olives (green is preferable, else black is also fine)
2 - 3 capers
2 - 3 jalapeno (if you want the sauce to be a little hot)
dry or fresh oregano

Steps:

1. In a pan, add around 2 - 3 tablespoon of olive oil and let it heat just a little
2. Add all of the garlic to it and fry till garlic is light golden
3. Now add the chopped onion and fry till it is nice light pink and translucent. They should be cooked but still crunchy
4. Add salt to taste
   (If you have added less salt at this stage, then don't worry. You will still be able to correct it later during grinding process)
5. Then add olives, capers and jalapeno if available
6. Turn off the heat
7. Add chopped basil and milk cream / milk
8. Sprinkle dry/fresh oregano if you like
9. You can now add a 2 - 3 tablespoon of olive oil again if you like.
10. Let it cool down for a minute or two.
11. Grind it in a mixer. It should be a little coarse in texture and not fine like coconut chutney.
    If needed add just a little bit of milk in the mixer to aid the grinding process.

That's it! Your Pesto sauce is ready! Enjoy it with pasta or even with bread too.

Enjoy!

Ganesha Habba!

Hello!

Sorry for being out of action for long. Lot of activities on personal and professional front demanded more time. 

With Ganesha Habba today, what better day to get back to blogging :)
[Habba = festival in Kannada :) ; yes learning the language in bits and pieces!!]

On this auspicious occasion, let me share yet another picture of Lord Ganesha.

Presenting a picture of the idol made during the Ganesha Habba workshop held @ ClayStation.

Ganesha Habba 2013

Apologies for the unedited picture. No photo editing tools are also working on my system :(

Enjoy!

P.S.: ClayStation conducts this workshops every year :)