What you’ll need:

• 1/3 lb of macaroni – cooked al dente
• 1 small onion – thinly sliced
• 1 small tomato – cored and diced
• 1 clove garlic – minced
• 2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
• 1/2 tsp sugar (optional)
• 1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
• 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
• salt to taste

How to make it:

1. Cook the pasta according to the package directions in salted water. Drain, cool and refrigerate for at least 2 hours
2. In a bowl, mix the garlic and balsamic vinegar. If you like, add the sugar to round out the flavours.
3. Mix in the salt and half of the pepper.
4. Slowly drizzle in the oil, whisking continuously till you get an emulsion.
5. Toss the pasta, onions and tomatoes with the rest of the pepper.
6. Toss the dressing with the pasta and serve.

Spice it up:

You could also add sliced olives or cooked artichoke hearts and it will taste great. Just remember to cut down the salt in the dressing. You can also add chopped basil leaves to the salad.

Carrot Celery Soup with 3-seed Sourdough Bread

What you’ll need:

• 2 large carrots – diced
• 3 stalks of celery – washed and diced
• 1/2 medium onion – chopped
• 1 clove of garlic – minced
• 2 tsp cumin powdeer
• 2 tsp coriander powder
• 1/2 tsp red chilli powder
• 1 tsp chopped basil
• 2 cups vegetable broth (optional)
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• Salt and pepper to taste

How to make it:

1. In a big pan, saute the onions, carrots and celery in olive oil for 3-5 minutes, until the onions turn translucent.
2. Add the garlic and saute for another minute.
3. Add the dry spices (coriander, cumin and red chilli powder) as well as the chopped basil and mix well.
4. Add 2 cups of broth. You can use water if you don’t have broth.
5. Add salt and freshly ground black pepper.
6. Cover and let it cook until the vegetables are done – around 15-20 minutes. You want them to be soft.
7. Using an immersion blender, blend until no chunks of vegetables are left. If you don’t have an immersion blender, allow the soup to cool before blending it in a countertop blender.
8. Let the blended soup come to a boil and serve immediately.
9. Garnish with cilantro leaves or a spoon of cream.

Chef’s notes:

I’ve adjusted the spice level to my taste. Feel free to adjust the quantity of spices to suit your palate. This soup is fairly thick due to the vegetables. You can make it thinner by adding more broth/water and allowing the entire mixture to come to a boil.

What you need:

• 1 medium onion, chopped and divided
• 1 bunch of spinach, chopped
• 1 cup ricotta cheese (optional)
• 1/4 cup sliced black olives
• 1/4 cup diced carrots
• 1/4 cup diced celery
• 1/4 cup chopped spring onions
• 1/2 cup peppers, seeded and chopped
• 1/4 cup frozen corn kernels
• 2-3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
• 2 tsp dried oregano
• 2 tsp dried basil
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• cracked black pepper to taste
• salt to taste
• crushed red peppers to taste
• 2 cups white sauce
• 1/2 cup mozzarella cheese
• 1/2 cup breadcrumbs
• 1 handful of spaghetti
• 1 tbsp butter
• Olive oil

How to make it:

1. First, we need to make the filling. I actually made two separate fillings, one with just onions, spinach and ricotta cheese, the other with the other vegetables, although there’s nothing that prevents you from combining all the vegetables in a single pot.
2. Saute the onions, spring onions, carrots and celery in olive oil for 3-5 minutes until the onions become translucent.
3. Add the garlic and saute for another minute.
4. Add the spinach and cook until the spinach starts wilting.
5. Add the crushed red peppers, chopped peppers, corn and dried herbs and saute another 2-3 minutes.
6. Add the olives, salt and pepper to taste and stir.
7. Mix the ricotta cheese with the vegetables.
8. While the filling is being prepared, cook the spaghetti according to the directions on the packaging. We want the spaghetti to be cooked al dente, or firm to the bite, but not hard.
9. Grease a 9×9 baking dish with butter.
10. Spread a layer of white sauce at the bottom of the baking dish and add a layer of the vegetables.
11. Spread a layer of spaghetti on top of the vegetables and top this with another layer of white sauce.
12. Repeat this layering until all the pasta and vegetables are used up.
13. Top it all off with a final layer of the white sauce.
14. On top of the white sauce, sprinkle shredded mozzarella cheese and top it off with a layer of breadcrumbs.
15. Bake in a 350 F oven for 20 minutes or until the cheese has melted and the top layer has browned.
16. Serve hot.

Chef’s notes:

• You can pretty much use any vegetables or pasta or sauce in this recipe. The basic idea is to cook the vegetables to the point that they are still firm, but just starting to become soft.
• I’ve made this with zucchini, carrots, peppers, fusili pasta and marinara sauce, with a topping of pepperjack cheese instead of mozzarella.

What you need:

• Bread (stale is better, but fresh bread is also fine)

How do you make it:

If your bread is fresh, leave it out on the countertop for a couple of hours to let it dry out a little bit. You could skip this step if you don’t have the time, but I think it makes for better breadcrumbs.

Break the bread up into small pieces and arrange in a single layer on a cookie sheet. Place into an oven and bake at 250 F for about an hour to 90 minutes. This step serves to remove all the moisture from the bread without actually browning it.

If you don’t have an oven, you can use a microwave oven. In this case, place the bread pieces on a microwave safe plate and zap on high for a minute at a time, and run it until the bread is hard and dry to the touch.

Let the bread pieces cool down before transferring them to a zip-top bag. Extract as much air as possible and close the zip all the way. Then you can go at it with a rolling pin until the bread pieces are all crumbs. Alternatively, you could use a food processor and pulse 2 to 3 times.

You can store the breadcrumbs in an air tight container for a couple of months.

Spice it up:

Once you have your plain breadcrumbs, you can spice them up any which way you like. I usually toss in a teaspoon of dried and crushed oregano leaves for every cup of breadcrumbs. You could also add garlic powder if you like. Play with the spices in your spice rack and adjust the quantities to taste.

Chef’s note:

These breadcrumbs are NOT the same as Panko or Japanese breadcrumbs. Panko is a lighter and flakier breadcrumb and is not easy to make at home, but is readily available in most Asian supermarkets. Most fried dishes use Panko as a breading, but it absorbs less grease than regular breadcrumbs and therefore results in a lighter dish. You could use regular breadcrumbs in a pinch, but it may be more greasy than intended.

What you need:

• 1/2 medium yellow onion, chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
• 2-3 medium tomatoes, diced or a 14.5 oz can of diced tomatoes
• 10 Basil leaves, chopped
• 1 tsp dried oregano
• 1/2 tsp dried thyme
• 1 tsp crushed red pepper
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 2 teaspoons of balsamic vinegar (optional)
• Salt to taste

How to make it:

1. Sweat the onions in olive oil until they just become translucent, 3 to 5 minutes. This is not a saute, you don’t want the onions to brown, but just release their moisture. Sprinkling a little salt helps with this.
2. Add the garlic and sweat for another minute. You’re trying to get the garlic flavour, but without browning the garlic.
3. Add the diced tomatoes and mix well. Toss in the basil leaves, the dried herbs and the crushed red pepper. If you don’t have fresh basil, substitute a teaspoon of dried basil instead.
4. Cover and let it cook for about 5-10 minutes or until the tomatoes have lost their raw smell.
5. Stir in the balsamic vinegar and let it cook for another two minutes. Though this is optional, I personally think that it gives a better flavour to the sauce.
6. Take the pot off the cooktop and allow the mixture to cool a bit before blending it to a sauce.
7. You now have your basic marinara sauce. You can use it in any recipe that calls for it. If the sauce seems a little too sour, then sweeten it a bit by adding a bit of sugar.

Chef’s notes:

This is probably the most versatile sauce that I can think of. As a base, you can make a gravy of sauteed vegetables mixed with this sauce and pasta to make a quick meal, or you could kick it up a notch with vodka and heavy cream to make vodka sauce.

You can adjust pretty much anything in this sauce – the herbs give it an intense flavour, the crushed red pepper gives it heat, while the balsamic vinegar gives it tartness.

What you need:

• 1 1/2 cups of rava (semolina)
• 1 1/2 tsps cumin seeds (jeera)
• 1/2 cup buttermilk
• 1/2 cup water
• 1/2 inch piece of ginger – finely chopped
• 1 sprig of curry leaves
• A handful of chopped cashew nuts
• A pinch of asafoetida
• Finely chopped green chillies to taste
• Salt to taste
• Oil for frying

How to make it:

Mix the cumin seeds, semolina and salt, add the ginger, green chilli, buttermilk, water, curry leaves and cashews. Mix very well and let it stand for 15 minutes to thicken.

Heat the oil in a wok or pan to 375 F. While the oil is heating up, make small balls from the mixture. About 1 teaspoons worth of the mixture should suffice for each ball. Once the oil is hot, drop in a few balls at a time and fry them until they are golden brown. Take them out of the oil and place them on a plate lined with paper towels to absorb the excess oil.

Spice it up:

You could also add in chopped onions and coriander (cilantro) leaves to the mixture before frying. The onions give a wonderful texture while the cilantro leaves give additional flavour.

Chef’s notes:

This is a recipe by my aunt which was shared by my cousin on Facebook. I thought that I should share this with the rest of the world. Thanks Periamma!