Italian Cuisine

V for Vegetable Pizza

Food, Italian Cuisine / By / July 25, 2021
Chicken Pizza

The final trio in my Italian repertoire is the Pizza. This is another universally loved dish, irrespective of nationality. The melty cheese and the spicy tomato sauce combination makes this dish the go to mood uplifter, the random evening snack, the I-don’t-feel-like-cooking dinner or simply the I-feel-like-a-pizza dish.

While I do not claim to have ever made the pizza base at home, I can do wonders with toppings and I like to make my own sauce.

Ingredients:

Pizza Base – 2 nos. 6”

For sauce:

Tomato – 4, medium, roughly chopped

Garlic – 2 cloves, chopped

Onion – 1, small, chopped

Salt – to taste

Pepper – 3 tsp.

Oregano powder – 2 tsp.

Thyme powder – 2 tsp.

Red chilli powder – 1 tsp.

Sugar – 1 tsp.

Oil – 2 tsp.

Water – as reruired

For the topping:

Onion – 2, small

Capsicum – 1, medium

Cheese – 2 cubes

Sweet corn – ½ cup

Mushrooms – ½ cup

Bell pepper red & yellow – 1 each, small

Oil – 3 tsp.

Method:

  1. In a frying pan, heat 2 tsp. oil. Add the chopped garlic and fry till aromatic.
  2. Add the onions and fry till translucent.
  3. Add the chopped tomatoes and salt and mix. Add a little water and cook on low flame till mushy. Mash with a flat spatula or a masher.
  4. Add pepper, red chilli, oregano and thyme powder, and sugar. Mix well and fry till raw smell is gone.
  5. Add water as required and bring to a boil to reduce. The final result should be a mushy sauce texture.
  6. Boil the sweet corn.
  7. For the topping, slice the onions and capsicum and chop the mushrooms and bell peppers.
  8. In a frying pan, heat 2 tsp oil and lightly fry the mushrooms and bell peppers till cooked and lightly fried. Remove and keep aside.
  9. In the same pan, add the remaining 1 tsp oil and fry the onions and capsicum till golden brown.
  10. Assembling the pizza: On the pizza base, spread the prepared tomato sauce generously. Place the fried veggies all over the base. Now sprinkle the fried onions and capsicum. Grate cheese over the whole pizza.
  11. In an oven, toast the pizza at 180°C for 10 minutes or until the cheese melts.
  12. Veg pizza is ready!

Admittedly, I mostly make chicken pizzas and veggies are an accompanying topping to my dish, the veggies on their own make a delish pizza as well. Do try this one out.

Tip: I recently discovered Wingreens Pizza dough mix which is a premixed flour mix. You simply add water, knead and let it rest in a warm place. It triples up in size in 30/40 minutes. Then you roll out and bake for 12 minutes with your sauce and toppings. Its much better than a store bought base.

This post was written for Blogchatter A2Z challenge; Day 22 – Letter “V”.

P for Pasta

Food, Italian Cuisine / By / July 26, 2021
Chicken Pasta

Who doesn’t love pasta? We needn’t always go out to a fine dining restaurant (or order in nowadays) because here I come with a delicious but easy cook version. This recipe is one of those simply made dishes which can be whipped up on a weekday and voila delicious meal ready!

Amo Il Cibo Italiano

Continuing my love for Italian cuisine, here’s a dish which is, I think, quite close to the original version and not an indigenous version of the same. It’s not at all complicated – of course, I am not making the actual pasta from scratch – and can be done in about 30 minutes.

Ingredients:

Pasta – penne, 125gms.

Sweet corn – ½ cup

French Beans – 100 gms., chopped

Garlic – 4/5 cloves, chopped

Onion – 1, medium, chopped

Capsicum – ½, medium, chopped

Flour – 1 tbsp.

Milk – 3 cups

Salt – to taste

Pepper – 1 tsp.

Red chilli powder – 1 tsp.

Oregano powder – 2 tsp.

Thyme powder – 1 tsp.

Cheese – 1 cup, grated

Butter – as required

Oil – 2 tsp.

Method:

  1. Boil the pasta in a pan of water with a pinch of salt. Pasta should be al dente. Drain them in a colander once done. and drizzle some olive oil over them to keep from sticking together.
  2. Boil the chopped sweet corn and french beans (and any other veggies you may want to add like carrot, broccoli, mushroom etc.) with a pinch of salt in a saucepan till they are about ¾ cooked. Drain them once done.
  3. Now, onto the main part of the dish (in my opinion) – the white sauce!
    1. Heat 2 tsp. oil in a frying pan. Add chopped garlic and sauté till you get the nice fried garlic smell.
    1. Add the chopped onions and capsicum till they are translucent.
    1. Then add a knob of butter (~1tbsp.). Once the butter melts, add the flour and keep mixing so that it doesn’t form lumps.
    1. Now add in the milk and keep sauteing to avoid lumps.
    1. Once the sauce starts to thicken, add in salt, pepper and red chilli powder, thyme and oregano and mix.
    1. Add ¾ cup cheese and mix.
  4. Add the boiled veggies and the pasta and mix well.
  5. Garnish with red chilli flakes, oregano and remaining cheese.
  6. Serve hot with some chilled wine.

This is a dish I make often which takes the boring out of any normal day. Alfredo pasta, some wine, some Netflix and ahh, a fantasy meal!

This post was written for Blogchatter A2Z challenge; Day 16 – Letter “P”.

B for Baked Vegetables

Food, Healthy Food, Italian Cuisine / By / July 26, 2021

I love cooking, I really do, but sometimes when I am too tired after a workday I feel like taking a shortcut to cooking. Again, I am a huge foodie, but those foodie tendencies are more inclined towards non vegetarian food or desserts. I am not a fan of vegetables in general and do not eat most vegetables. The ones I do eat, I need to make them more interesting once in a while to keep myself interested. Out of these 2 proclivities was born the idea of baked vegetables.

This is an – almost – healthy dish with lots of vegetable and is easy to make at home. Its delicious to eat and brings a twist to boring, everyday vegetables.

Which Cuisine?

This is essentially an Italian dish. However, I have never been to Italy and don’t really have a connection per se. Italian is simply a cuisine I love and Italy is a country on my bucket list. In fact, had in not been for the pandemic, I would have had visited Italy last October. Be that as it may, here goes my simple but lovely recipe for baked vegetables.

Ingredients:

Carrot – 1 medium, chopped

French Beans – 100 gms., chopped

Peas – ½ cup

Cauliflower – ½ of a medium sized, diced/cut into half florets

Potato – 1, diced

Garlic – 4/5 cloves, chopped

Flour – 1 tbsp.

Milk – 2 cups

Salt – to taste

Pepper – 1 tsp.

Red chilli powder – 1 tsp.

Oregano powder – 2 tsp.

Thyme powder – 1 tsp.

Cheese – 1.5 cup, grated

Butter – as required

Oil – 2 tsp.

Method:

  1. Boil the chopped carrots, french beans, peas, potato and cauliflower with a pinch of salt in a saucepan till they are about ¾ cooked; al-dente. Drain them once done.
  2. Meanwhile, let’s prepare the white sauce which brings the whole dish together.
    1. For the white sauce, heat 2 tsp. oil in a frying pan. Add chopped garlic and sauté till you get the nice fried garlic smell. Then add a knob of butter (~1tbsp.).
    1. Once the butter melts, add the flour and keep mixing so that it doesn’t form lumps.
    1. Now add in the milk and keep sauteing to avoid lumps.
    1. Once the sauce starts to thicken, add in salt, pepper and red chilli powder, thyme and oregano and mix.
    1. Add ¼ cup cheese and mix.
    1. Adjust taste and take it off the heat.
  3. Grease a baking tray with butter. Preheat oven for 5 minutes at 180 °C.
  4. Add half of the boiled veggies to the baking tray like a layer. Ladle the white sauce over the veggies. Sprinkle half the grated cheese. Repeat for a second layer.
  5. Bake the entire thing for 15 minutes, making sure the cheese has melted and become slightly golden brown.
  6. Garnish with red chilli flakes and oregano. Baked vegetables is ready!
Ingredients
White sauce preparation
Preparing for baking – layering
Ready to bake!
Presenting…Baked Vegetables a la Nils!

This may sound like a lot of steps but I just broke it down for ease of understanding. It really is quite simple to make and is pretty fast. Please try out and let me know how it turns out!

This post was written for Blogchatter A2Z challenge; Day 2 – Letter “B”.