January242013
WHOLEWHEAT PASTA with Shrimp Tomato Sauce This little pasta dish may sound like a regular tomato sauce pasta but it’s really not, and it’s not that “little” either. The tomato sauce is infused with a lot of herbs that you can totally cut down salt, and other unnecessary seasonings! Recipe - 1 serving: 50 (raw) grams Whole Wheat Pasta 1/2 Green Bell Pepper, chopped finely 1/2 White Onion, diced 3 cloves garlic, chopped finely A handful of Basil leaves, chopped finely 3 leaves Oregano, chopped finely 3 medium-sized tomatoes, cubed 1/4 Carrots, chopped finely a handful of Spinach, chop roughly 3 shrimps 3 Tablespoons tomato paste (to taste) Step-by-step: 1. Boil water in pot. Place pasta in boiling water. Boil 15-20 minutes. 2. While boiling… Chop finely Bell Pepper, Basil leaves, Oregano leaves, Garlic, Carrots - set aside, separately. 3. Cube Tomatoes, White Onion -set aside, separately. 4. Preheat medium-sized skillet with a teaspoon of Olive Oil. You’ll know if the oil is hot and ready by touching it using a moist wooden spoon. If oil sizzles, that’s the time you can add the ingredients. 5. Sauté Garlic and Onion til almost golden brown. Throw in Tomatoes & Carrots. Cover pan with lid for 1 minute or until tomatoes become watery. 6. Add in Basil, Oregano, Spinach, Bell Pepper - Mix well. This is also a good time to add the shrimps so it’ll absorb the aroma of the herbs while cooking. 7. Add Tomato Paste and give it a good mix. 8. Drain the Pasta from the boiling water just before serving. We don’t want sticky pasta now, don’t we? You can also mix it with a little olive oil, but that’t not necessary if you drain the pasta straight from the pot to your plate. 9. Be creative! Presentation is part of the meal if you want to enjoy your delicious creation! *Photo: I just cooked Step 7 separately for presentation that’s why the Tomato Shrimp sauce is a bit dry on the photo. But when you mix them all up on your plate, tastes as good!

WHOLEWHEAT PASTA with Shrimp Tomato Sauce

This little pasta dish may sound like a regular tomato sauce pasta but it’s really not, and it’s not that “little” either. The tomato sauce is infused with a lot of herbs that you can totally cut down salt, and other unnecessary seasonings!

Recipe - 1 serving:

50 (raw) grams Whole Wheat Pasta

1/2 Green Bell Pepper, chopped finely

1/2 White Onion, diced

3 cloves garlic, chopped finely

A handful of Basil leaves, chopped finely

3 leaves Oregano, chopped finely

3 medium-sized tomatoes, cubed

1/4 Carrots, chopped finely

a handful of Spinach, chop roughly

3 shrimps

3 Tablespoons tomato paste (to taste)

Step-by-step:

1. Boil water in pot. Place pasta in boiling water. Boil 15-20 minutes.

2. While boiling… Chop finely Bell Pepper, Basil leaves, Oregano leaves, Garlic, Carrots - set aside, separately.

3. Cube Tomatoes, White Onion -set aside, separately.

4. Preheat medium-sized skillet with a teaspoon of Olive Oil. You’ll know if the oil is hot and ready by touching it using a moist wooden spoon. If oil sizzles, that’s the time you can add the ingredients.

5. Sauté Garlic and Onion til almost golden brown. Throw in Tomatoes & Carrots. Cover pan with lid for 1 minute or until tomatoes become watery.

6. Add in Basil, Oregano, Spinach, Bell Pepper - Mix well. This is also a good time to add the shrimps so it’ll absorb the aroma of the herbs while cooking.

7. Add Tomato Paste and give it a good mix.

8. Drain the Pasta from the boiling water just before serving. We don’t want sticky pasta now, don’t we? You can also mix it with a little olive oil, but that’t not necessary if you drain the pasta straight from the pot to your plate.

9. Be creative! Presentation is part of the meal if you want to enjoy your delicious creation!

*Photo: I just cooked Step 7 separately for presentation that’s why the Tomato Shrimp sauce is a bit dry on the photo. But when you mix them all up on your plate, tastes as good!

food healthy whole wheat pasta tomato sauce savory shrimp fitness diet workout exercise 

August102011

Italian 拉面… kinda

I learned a lot from these past three weeks: from food bites to real-life scenarios. Everything was just swell. With busy Saturdays at the kitchen, making and preparing food, mainly pasta and risotto. 

It was incredible how I found passion here in food and now I feel like it’s going somewhere up ahead. I was and still am motivated. 

Early mornings never felt so great and productive; the smell of onions and garlics sizzling, sound of boiling of pasta water and the many hands kneading different pasta dough. 

With head-chef Uli, sous-chef Mike and apprentices Michelle and Maria around, I learned so much from them. But I thank my parents mostly for letting me do what I want to do :)

This Cannelloni was the best dish we made, the Tortellini would be the runner-up. I’ll be going to make one of those again soon and let’s see where I’ll go from there.

Even if my classes are over, I am still going to continue on my kitchen adventures and experiments. This is the only way I’ll be able to keep up and move along. 

But for now, heavy exams and school work up ahead. I’m dead X_X

pasta risotto food blog cannelloni tortellini cheese dough savory 

July312011

ISCAHM Day 2

Day 2 of the Pasta & Risotto class I’m attending and so far, I’m enjoying every single bits of it, the time spent on cooking and munching on the food when the chef’s not looking ;)

So yesterday, we cooked 5 pasta dishes and 1 risotto dish with 6 different kinds of pasta doughs…

Dough: 

- saffron

- squid ink/black

- spinach

- beetroot

- plain

- chocolate!!

Pasta & Risotto:

- Macaroni and Ham Gratin

- Mushroom and Spinach Raviolo alla Piemontese

- Fettuccine Alfredo

- Ham and Herb Stuffed Tortellini in Gorgonzola Cream Sauce

- Farfalle Pasta allo Scoglio

- Saffron Risotto

The first half of the session, the kitchen was just quiet. Everyone was chopping away whatever vegetables, ham or seafood that needed chopping. 

The second half, we all got hands-on and dirty. With flour, I mean. Busy, busy, busy! Kneaded, sheeted, stuffed, shaped the pasta doughs…

Stuffed Tortellinis (Spinach Pasta Dough)

Bow-Tie Pasta (Beetroot and Squid Ink Pasta Dough)

Ravioli at the back (Saffron & Chocolate Pasta Dough) & Fettuccine (all kinds of doughs)

SECRET WEAPONS: you’ll see…

I can sense a pattern here.. Remember on my old post, Chef Uli also did this trick with slices of garlic bread… and now he used bread sticks. Now we know it’s from Chef Uli if it’s styled like this ;)

Farfalle Pasta allo Scoglio, aka Seafood Ragout, was the one dish that stood out among all prepared. Well, I personally liked the Tortellini but there were just so many ingredients used on this seafood dish that it was the tastiest. The clams were perfect and the bow-tie pasta colors were so cute! :)

What made me like this Macaroni & Ham Gratin was that we used Gruyere Cheese for its sauce. It had this tangy and salty flavors mixed with a little bit of the typical cheese smell, which a lot of people do not like, but I like it. It’s what makes the cheese, cheese! 

We made a lot of Macaroni Gratin! 4 dishes of it and the little white polka-dotted blue dish is so cute!

Toxic morning, but it was all fun and scrumptious. Got to take home a lot of food this time; I was prepared, I brought a lot of food containers xD Next Saturday again for the third and last session, I will miss this class therefore I will spend my time cooking and baking more! :D

This all happened in the morning just in time for lunch time, hold on to those spatulas and knives for more baking adventures that happened on the same day but on the evening. Chocolate Pull-Apart Bread and Ginger Cookies soon! :)

blog culinary school pasta dough food seafood risotto cheese gratin macaroni ravioli tortellini kitchen bow tie pasta chef savory 

July232011
First day at International School of Culinary Arts & Hotel Management, Made 6 dishes including fresh pasta. It was so worth waking up early in the morning!! Hahaha! xD More posts and updates about this soon! 

First day at International School of Culinary Arts & Hotel Management, Made 6 dishes including fresh pasta. It was so worth waking up early in the morning!! Hahaha! xD

More posts and updates about this soon! 

blog culinary arts culinary school pasta food 

June62011

Lasagna - made from scratch!

I like pasta.

+

I like making things from scratch

= 

Pasta lasagna made from scratch!

From mixing the dough to kneading to boiling it. The red sauce and béchamel sauce were just extra. Of course no one wants their pasta without sauce!!

Kneaded the dough and left it in the fridge to sit overnight.

Here’s the hardest part! Flattening the dough! See, I don’t have a  sheeter and I left my rolling pin somewhere so I just used a glass cup with flat exterior.

I wanted it thin and smooth so i kept on rolling and rolling until desired thinness. Boy that was exhausting! 

But it was all worth the effort!

Here’s the thing with fresh-made pasta: boil it right after making it, whether flat or strips or ravioli-type, you have to boil it right away to avoid hardening and cracking of the uncooked pasta.

SOOOO DELICIOUS!!! I want to make some more despite how much effort I have to put in for just 1 family serving-size lasagna! ;P 

And look! It’s in a lunchbox!! How cute is that?! 

pasta lasagne meal food savory 

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