Spaghetti con le polpette

Or Spaghetti with meatballs

One of my favourite films of all time is Malèna. I happened to be flicking through the tv channels when a film, which was just showing the title at that time, caught my attention. I cant remember now why I was so drawn to the movie; it could have been the song that they were playing at the time or the cinematography. As soon as the actors started talking...aaaah italiano. The film didnt have any subtitle and to be honest, since they were talking so fast, I couldnt understand a thing or two. I  decided to hang on in a few and before I knew it, I have watched the film from beginning to end.

The film was beautiful, it reaches out to you, it was melancholic and nostalgic despite not I understanding anything. Obviously the movie underpins on the universal theme of L-O-V-E; love for humanity, faithful love of the husband, and love from the little boy to Malèna. Monica Belluci, the beautiful italian actress who played Malèna was at her element. Her luminous beauty sometimes outshone the movie in general. The movie also went back to basic, and didn't really need words to tell a story. But in hindsight, I could have wanted to be able to translate italian to english  when the boy said in italian, from the last scene of the film, "Of all the girls who asked me to remember them, the only one I remembered is the one who did not ask."

When I was reading the wikipedia (click here) about the movie, after I caught it again on telly with subtitles this time, I found out that there was really no raving reviews except for the cinematography and original score (Damn! the song and the cinematography were the reasons that got me after all. Hehehe.) The plot was simple and  revolved around Malèna's beauty and her punishments for being beautiful. How vain huh? Hehehe.

Spaghetti con le polpette or spaghetti with meatballs is quite a simple dish. It is also a beautiful italian dish. And is made out of L-O-V-E. Its beauty exudes exuberance and zest. I never thought that you can actually taste exuberance and zest on any dish but this dish has them and more.

This pasta dish is also my little boy's latest favourite and couldn't stop talking about or gobbling it for that matter, pun intended. If that weren't enough testament of how simple and beautiful this dish then I don't know what is.

This dish is definitely a keeper and I suppose I will be whipping it again tomorrow and again and again for the rest of our lives...

Buon appetito! Salute! :)

 *Snagged from Mama's Italian Cookbook
Serves 6

Ingredients

400 g/14 oz beef mince

1 onion, finely chopped

1 egg

4 tbsp chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley

plain flour, for dusting

5 tbsp virgin olive oil

400 ml/14 fl oz passata

2 tbsp tomato puree

400g/14 oz dried spaghetti

salt and pepper

6 shredded fresh basil leaves and freshly grated parmesan cheese, to garnish

Place the potato in a small saucepan, add cold water to cover and a pinch of salt, and bring to boil. Cook for 10-15 minutes, until tender, then drain. Either mash throughly with a potato masher or fork or pass through a potato ricer.

Combine the potato, mince, onion, egg and parsley in a bowl and season to taste with salt and pepper. Spread out the flour on a plate. With dampened hands, shape the meat mixture into walnut-sized balls and roll in the flour. Shake off any excess.

Heat the oil in a heavy-based frying pan, add the meatballs and cook over a medium heat, stirring and turning frequently, for 8-10 minutes, until golden all over. Add the passata and tomato puree and cook for a further 10 minutes, until the sauce is reduced and thickened. Meanwhile, bring a large saucepan of lightly salted water to the boil. Add the pasta, bring back to the boil and cook for 8-10 minutes, until tender but still firm to the bite.

Drain well and add to the meatball sauce, tossing well to coat. Transfer to a warmed serving dish, garnish with the basil leaves and grated Parmesan cheese and serve immediately.

Thai Fried Noodles (Phad Thai)

Thailand is copping the wrath of the great flood. Central Bangkok is going to brace the onslaught of  THE raging water from the Uplands anytime soon...But stating that opening salvo is in no way of trying to make you lose your appetite due to the seriousness of the problem. My heart goes to the whole nation. Because I am truly enamoured by their culture especially by their food. Thai dishes remain one of my favourite culinary tastes, if not my favourite. Having said that, I also don't want to leave Italian dishes out of the equation. I have loquaciously claimed that I was once an Italian raggaza in my past life. Hehehe.

Phad Thai, Tom Yum soup and Glutinous Rice with Mango, in that particular order, are my top three (3) picks. I could eat them every day and you will never see me complain. I have been meaning to cook Phad Thai for so long as I can remember and yet only managed to cook it for the first time today. Truth be told, Phad Thai is everything I dreamt of and more. And cooking Phad Thai is my claim to fame. I have arrived. Lol!

Preparation time: 25 minutes

Total cooking time: 10-15 minutes
Serves 4

Ingredients:

250g thick rice stick noodles
2 tablespoon oil
3 gloves garlic, chopped
2 teaspoons chopped red chillies
150g (5 1/2 oz) pork, thinly sliced
100g (3 1/2 oz) peeled raw prawn (shrimp) meat, chopped
1/2 bunch garlic chives, chopped
2 tablespoons fish sauce
2 tablespoons lime juice
2 teaspoons soft brown sugar
2 eggs beaten
90g (1 cup) bean spouts
sprigs of coriander (cilantro)
40g (1/4 cup) roasted peanuts, chopped

1. Soak the rice stick noodles in warm water for 10 minutes or until they are soft. Drain and set aside. head the oil in a wok or large frying pan. When the oil is very hot, add the garlic, chillies and pork; stir constantly for 2 minutes.

2. Add the prawn meat to the wok. Cook, stirring constantly, for 3 minutes. Add the garlic chives and drain noodles to the wok; cover and cook for another minute.

3. Add the fish sauce, lime juice, sugar and eggs to the wok. Toss well with tongs or two wooden spoons until heated through.

4. Sprinkle with sprouts, coriander and peanuts. Traditionally served with crisp fried onion, soft brown sugar and chopped peanuts on the side

Pasta with tuna, capers, green olives and pine nuts

I know, I know, I have been slacking off with my food blog of late and Im sorry... I must have been very tired lately. There are just so much on my plate at the moment that it takes all my will power to just do anything after a day's worth in the grind. But opening this blog and sharing the wonders of cooking and baking is a commitment. And albeit the days are getting harder and the nights are getting colder in my scheme of things,  cooking and baking remain my passion. I haven't stopped baking and cooking, really.  Nor had I stopped taking photos. I was, slacking off producing food blog entries and that's just being politically correct. Lol!

So without further ado, here is another dish amongst a few of pasta dishes I have created...

Ingredients:

250-300grams pasta

2-3 tablespoons of olive oil

1 can of tuna in olive oil 

4 garlic cloves, minced

1 white medium onion, minced

2 tablespoons of capers

2 tablespoons of green olives stuffed with pimiento

1 lemon

2 tablespoons italian herbs

2 tablespoons pine nuts

white wine

1 tablespoon white sugar (optional)

salt and pepper to taste

Method:

Cook the pasta following package directions.  Drain, and keep aside,.

Heat the oil and add garlic and onion. When the veggies had turned translucent, add in tuna, and cook for 2 minutes, stir then add capers and green olives, half of the lemon, salt and pepper, sugar (optional) and italian herbs,  a few dashes of white wine, pine nuts then stir and taste if the taste is balance.

Add the spaghetti to the frying pan and stir it around to reheat and coat it evenly with sauce.  Add the other half of the lemon. Season to taste with salt and  pepper  (if needed), Remove from heat. Plate your pasta, drizzle with olive oil and top it with parmesan cheese and serve immediately.

Pasta with Chilli prawns, sweet basil and sun-dried tomatoes

I hesitated to post this pasta entry only because I cook pasta week in week out, its easy to make  so much so that I find nothing special doing pasta anymore. And when you are caught between a wall and a hard place (read: toiling away to get your day's worth) you relish any opportunity to cook a meal that can be prepared in a breeze.

Not like when I was growing up, pasta on our table means birthdays, celebrating christmas day and new year's, and usually cooking pasta is synonymous to pasta bolognese. I grew up with my Mommy cooking her famous pasta bolognese until my sister and I were old enough to prepare it for the whole family. We knew the drill and the ABC's of her bolognese. And every time I go home to my family to this day and age, I would still cook her pasta bolognese. Going home now is such a treat so I don't fail to serve it to my family.

My sister would urge me to cook any pasta dish every so often that I have concocted my own pasta dishes. She would prepare the ingredients, I cook the dishes. According to her, I cook the best pasta dishes in the whole world. Whether she is biased or not, your guess is as good as mine. :)) In hindsight, I must say the taste of my pasta dishes aren't bad at all, they are actually good.  Hence, pasta lover not a fighter  should be my name tag. Lol! If there were a dish that I cook and enjoy eating, its my pasta. A pasta dish was also one of the first dishes I cooked for my darling little boy. So please humour me, by letting me post, albeit hesitantly, one of my own pasta dishes...

Ingredients:

250 grams spaghetti pasta
250-300 grams shelled prawns

3 cloves of garlic, minced

medium-sized white onion, minced

handful of sweet basil leaves

lemon

1 1/2 teaspoon of chilli flakes (if you are not keen on chilli then ignore this ingredient)

2 tablespoons of italian herbs

2 teaspoons of  capers

1/2 teaspoon of  powdered cayenne chilli

1 tablespoon of brown sugar (or more to taste)

3 tablespoons of olive oil

salt and pepper to taste

50-75 grams of sun dried tomatoes (or more, its really up to you, I usually add more, I love sun-dried tomatoes long time :) )

a handful of shredded or thinly sliced parmesan cheese (I usually add more and more. Lol!)

I can't help it, I loooove parmesan cheese

Method:

Cook the pasta following package directions.  Drain, and keep aside,.

Heat the oil and add garlic and onion. When the veggies turned translucent, add in your prawns until   they turned slight pink, add chilli flakes and powdered cayenne, stir then add capers and sun dried tomatoes, half of the lemon, salt and pepper, sugar and italian herbs,  stir and taste if the taste is balance, let it simmer for 3 minutes (make sure that you don't over cook your prawns, prawns are cooked 4-6 minutes) stir once in a while.

Add the spaghetti to the frying pan and stir it around to reheat and coat it evenly with sauce.  Add the other half of the lemon. Season to taste with salt and  pepper  (if needed), Remove from heat then stir in  a handful of basil.  Plate your pasta, drizzle with olive oil and top it with parmesan cheese and serve immediately.

This pasta dish is as good as serving it immediately or reheating it for the following day's lunch or dinner. :)

Beggar's Linguine/Fettuccine

I worship the ground to which the famous food author/chef  Dorie Greenspan walks on. That maybe a tad of exaggeration but the truth remains - I adore her food and recipes. 

All the food bloggers I follow would mention her name with much awe, and a hint of reverence. I was then on my way to finding out why all the flatteries about her myself. 

First off, buy her cookbook; little did I know, I was up for an adventure, sort of like looking for a needle in a haystack adventure. My little boy and I searched every nook and cranny of every bookstore in Melbourne to score any of Dorie Greenspan's cookbooks for a long time (I think she has three or more including her collaboration with Julia Child). We finally found the one and only copy of her cookbook, Baking My home to yours in Borders, Melbourne Central. The sales person who helped us even had to topple down some book shelves just so she can hand me over 'my precious'. Lol! And Lo and behold how precious it was, for 100 AUS dollars she would become mine. I needed to close my eyes when I was paying  her off, WT! 100 dollars for a cookbook?! But I guess all the good things aren't free. :))

Second off, try her recipes; this does not merit a long explanation. For, I AM SIMPLY HOOKED FOR LIFE.

The recipe featured here is actually from her website and asking for linguine noodles. But for reasons unknown even to me, I bought fettuccine noodles instead. Lol! When the time came to finally try out the recipe, I was left with no choice but to brave the wild. :) What a nice surprise indeed to find out that my fettuccine noodles still live up to the dishes' name. And so, we shall this dish - beggar's linguine/fettuccine. 

I also tried to find out why this pasta dish was called beggar's to no avail. Maybe I didn't try hard enough but what I found out instead is that there is nothing beggar-ish to the taste. It is yummy all the way.

* Adapted from http://doriegreenspan.com

From Around My French Table

Makes 6 to 8 starter servings or 4 main-course servings

1 box (14 to 16 ounces) linguine or fettuccine

1 1/2 sticks (6 ounces) unsalted butter

1/3 cup shelled pistachios, coarsely chopped

1/3 cup almonds, coarsely chopped

8 plump dried mission figs or 3 dried kadota figs, finely diced

1/4 cup plump, moist raisins (golden raisins are nice here)

1/2 cup grated Parmesan (more or less to taste)

Grated zest of 1/2 orange (or more to taste)

Minced chives and/or parsley leaves, for serving (optional)

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Cook the linguine  or fettuccine according to the package directions.  When the pasta is cooked, drain it well, but don’t rinse it.

About 5 minutes before the pasta is ready, melt the butter over medium heat in a large high-sided skillet or casserole.  (You’re going to add the pasta to this pan, so make sure it’s large enough.)  When the butter is melted, hot and golden, stir in the nuts, figs and raisins.  Allow the butter to bubble and boil – you want it to cook to a lovely light brown, or to turn into pan beurre noisette, butter with the color and fragrance of hazelnuts – and when it’s reached just the color you want, add the pasta to the pan.  Stir the pasta around in the butter to coat it evenly and to tangle it up with the bits of fruit and nuts.

Turn the pasta into a warm serving bowl, add the grated cheese and season with salt and a generous amount of black pepper.  Toss and turn the pasta to incorporate the cheese, then dust the top of the mound with orange zest and chives and/or parsley, if you’re using them.

Serving:  Bring the pasta to the table and, just before you’re ready to dish out the first serving, give it one more toss to mix in the zest and herbs.  The pasta is so good – and so surprising – that it should be served on its own as its own course, whether first, middle (as the Italians would have it) or main.  

Storing:  This is not a dish that can be reheated and it’s not a pasta that can be served cold, so eat up!

My little boy's seal of approval: