the easiest veggie pasta

this is the kind of pasta i make for dinner when i'm studying and/or being busy doing all afternoon long (i.e. almost all the time in the weeks before exams.. it's like my most usual dinner i should say ahah)
it's almost impossible to make it bad and it requires very little cooking skills and it turns out delicious with many different kinds of vegetables (besides it produces very little stuff to clean afterwards eheh)

i dont have precise doses, it all depends on how much veggie you want with your pasta (in these "veggie maniac" periods i tend to put a lot more vegetables than pasta actually) and with some little tips it can turn into a really awesome dish.
so well.. put a good amount of water to boil, clean and cut your vegetables (it can be cauliflower, broccoli, zucchini, potato, pumpkin, green beans.. whatever vegetables you like boiled) pick your fav shape of pasta.
when the water is boiling, salt and throw in the pasta and the vegetables (NB. check the cooking time of your shape of pasta and compare it to how many min it takes to boil your vegetable without coming out destroyed. then throw in the vegetables according to that!)
when the pasta is ready (much "al dente" so it doesnt overcook in the next passage) drain everything and throw it back in the saucepan with olive oil, chili pepper and whatever spices you like with it and/or parmesan cheese.

is it that simple? yes it is. if you want to enhance your pasta, you can easily prepare some good soffritto (sauteeing some onion and garlic in a frying pan for example) or something super yummy to mix your pasta and veggie in after draining.. i love to boil cubed potato with my pasta and on the side sautee some bacon and rosemary, or some rabbit bites with thyme and lemon grass mmh :D
i often make orecchiette with broccoli this way, completing with olive oil in abundance, chili pepper, garlic and grated hard ricotta cheese.

just a bunch of food pics :)

rice noodles

chinese srhimp and green peas dumplings


zucchini risotto

broccoli, zucchini and chili pepper pasta

lemon potato and chicken stew

smoked, please

today i was at the supermarket, undecided about salmon.. i love salmon but what was i inspired about, smoked or fresh? i ended up with some nice scottish smoked salmon.. pinkish slices so tender they melt in your mouth.. so nice.
it counted 4 slices and i thought maybe tomorrow i can make a nice smoked salmon and caviar sandwich instead of the overdone ham and fresh cheese (which i like but that's just the quickest toast one can make eheh) and use a half to make pasta this evening.
and that's what i did.

angel hair pasta with smoked salmon and red caviar

while pasta is getting done, sautee some shallot in butter. add smoked salmon roughly cut and freshly ground black pepper.

when the pasta is al dente, throw it in the pan with the salmon sauce, stir in a few spoons of milk and sautee quickly. taking the pan from the heat, add a spoon red caviar, mix well and serve.

as "side dish" i made roasted carrots.. i really like that, it's so easy to make and the result is so good. i dont like boiled carrots at all and rosting them this way is the best to me to eat carrots if not raw :)

roasted carrots

put carrots on the oven rack (i put an aluminium sheet but you can use a baking tin as well) and drizzle some olive oil all over them. ground some black pepper and spread a pinch of salt onto them. you can use whatever spices you prefer, i like it so simple with pepper only.
bake in preheated oven at 200°C for about 20min.

veggie pasta

as you can see, i had some zucchini in storage :D

i love to make pasta with vegetables and zucchini is surely one of my favorites.. it's a quite versatile vegetable and gets on well with many other ingredients.

so.. for yesterday's interpretation i used rice pasta (my fav italian rice brand makes that, it's very light, white in colour and it has a subtle flavor) putting some saffron in the boiling water so that's where the yellowish colour (and wondrous taste) come from. the zucchini are simply sauteed in olive oil, with a bit of seasoning mix (dried mushroom, parsley, garlic and onion).

this evening i decided to mince the zucchini with some fresh sweet green pepper, cooking such mixture with some milk, fresh basil and a mix of spices (saffron, lemon grass, chili, dill and fennel). the pasta i chose is normal rigatoni, that's one of the best shapes ever :D