There is a part of me that craves for veggies as much as it does for meat. In pregnancy, I read that these cravings for meat or veggies signifies a deficiency in one’s diet, maybe I need more vitamins and so I am craving for veggies these days. It so happens that in those blue days every month, I crave for veggies. This is also because my tummy feels queasy if it has non veg on these blue days. This time I decided to try a veg marinara pasta with zucchini, broccoli and corn to satisfy my craving for veggies. I love these vegetables together. They are crunchy and complement each other in terms of flavour and colour. Yep colour, that matters a lot when you want to click pics and even more when you need to convince hard core non-vegetarians to eat something vegetarian. This pasta was made to celebrate my defense viva. I know many might be surprised that I went for a vegetarian banquet over a non-vegetarian one to celebrate a huge success like this but I tell you it felt so nice to try veg for a change. And guess what? Sarah seems to love Italian. Yep, my 9 month old tried her first bowl of pasta and was all excited. She seems to be a connoisseur of food these days gobbling down every meal from our plates. If you are wondering if its fine to feed pasta to a nine month old, my doc tells me it is and in fact it is great to have kids share our meals and get a feel of our regular food.
My hubby calls Italy my second home. I have just been there for three months but I cannot get over my fascination for Italian food and the way Italians celebrate food. I believe their gregariousness and indulgence is addictive and like David Rocco says in many ways Italians resemble Indians in their values and love for life, food and family. Recently I had a discussion with few friends who wanted to learn basics of Italian cooking. I told them its easy and they told me they found it hard to differentiate between sauces and pastas. On their request I decided to do my basic guide on Italian food. There are variations to these sauces. I don’t use anchovies for instance which is very wrong to an Italian. But I will try my best to give you the basics of what I understand as Italian cooking. So here’s a basic marinara sauce. I love understanding the history of my recipes it helps me remember them easily. So here’s a little info on marinara. Marinara sauce is believed to have originated from Naples (also known as Napoli). Marinara literally means mariner’s and there are theories claiming this sauce was used by sailors on sea. Some assume marinara sauce to have seafood in it, but that’s not true. Though personally I love using this sauce for tuna pasta and I beleive it pairs well with seafood. But as you can see this recipe has vegetables in it and it still tastes great.
Most pics of this sauce that you see online would look blood red, this is because they use canned tomatoes unlike us in India who use normal tomatoes. However for the colour I do add 200 ml of tomato puree. If you do this reduce the quantity of fresh tomatoes to half kg.
Ingredients for Vegetarian Marinara Pasta
For the Marinara Sauce
Tomatoes- 1 kg
Carrot- 1
Celery- 2 stalks
Garlic- 6 cloves
Onion- 1
Parpika- 1 tsp
Oregano- 1 tsp
Sweet basil- 1/2 tsp
Basil leaves- 5-7
Salt- to taste
Olive oil- 2 tbsp
Directions
Blanch and peel the tomatoes. What I do mostly is boil water sufficient for covering the tomatoes and I then drop the tomatoes in the water for 4 minutes. I then scoop the tomatoes out as I don’t want them cooked. Once cooled I peel off the skin of the tomato. Roughly chop the tomatoes they will release a lot of juices save the juices too. Heat a pan and add the garlic cloves first. Saute them for a minute or two over medium flame. Don’t let them brown. Now add the onions followed by grated carrots and chopped celery. Saute till the onion softens and add the tomatoes with the salt. Bring the tomatoes to a boil and add the oregano, sweet basil and paprika. Let the sauce simmer till it reduces to half so that it is thicker and devoid of water. Now add the fresh basil leaves. I leave them as whole sometimes with the stalks. I remove the stalks later. Bring the sauce to a final boil and take it off the flame. If stored in the refrigerator this sauce stays u pto a week. I freeze it often and have used it over three months.
For the pasta
Penne Pasta- 250 g
Broccoli- 200 g
Baby corn- 200 g
Zucchini- 150 g
Onion- 1
Sweet basil- a pinch
Oregano- a pinch
Olive oil- 1 tbsp
Garlic- 3 cloves
Salt- to taste
Directions
Boil the pasta till al dente. Follow the package instructions. Each pasta has different instructions but on an average its recommended to boil pasta for 8-10 minutes. Drain the pasta and pour ice cold water over the drained pasta to arrest further cooking. Heat oil in a pan and add the garlic cloves. Add the onions and vegetables thereafter. I don’t add zucchini at this stage because it cooks faster. Add salt over the broccoli and corn and toss them gently. Do not cover the pan because the vegetables will lose their colour if you cook them covered. Add the the oregano and sweet basil and toss the veggies again. When the broccoli is almost cooked add the zucchini. Remember the vegetables should not be over cooked they should be crunchy so cook them for 5-6 minutes. Once the vegetables are cooked pour the sauce into the vegetables and stir gently. Switch off the flame. I don’t add the pasta to this sauce, I pour the sauce and veggies over a plate of boiled pasta. If you like mixing the sauce, veggies and pasta. Add the sauce and veggies to a large bowl. To this bowl add the pasta and give a gentle toss. Mixing with a spoon could break the pasta. I prefer the pouring over method to the mixing thoroughly method. Serve with garlic bread.
Ingredients for garlic bread
Baguette- 1
Salted butter- 30 g
Garlic- 6 cloves
Oregano- a pinch
Directions
Slice the baguettes diagonally into 2 inch pieces. Mix the butter, minced garlic and oregano in a bowl. Smear the herbed butter onto one side of the baguette slices. Grill for 6 minutes at 180 degrees till the bread is well toasted.
I wish my vegetarian friends came home during these occasions and I would have been happy to show them my vegetarian culinary skills :) . We had some strawberry wine with this pasta and I loved the combo. I will be posting the recipe for strawberry wine very soon. Stay tuned for the post on wine.
