Chicken & Broccoli Pasta Salad is the ultimate pasta salad without any mayo! A simple yet addictive pasta salad made with al dente broccoli, chicken bits, red bell pepper, onion, basil and feta drizzled with olive oil! This Chicken & Broccoli Pasta Salad is an addictive “wake up in the middle of the night for a bite” meal… a “you have more than me” meal. This is a recipe from way back in the days when I used to sleep over at my friend’s house, and her mom knew I was coming. Then, she would make me that pasta salad. I could not get enough, it looked like a simple pasta salad, but something in it made it impossible to stop eating… With the years, I transformed it even more to my taste; I’ve added feta cheese and fresh basil leaves. The Golden Dressing The dressing for this pasta salad is simply fresh…
White Asparagus Pasta is a great way to welcome spring! A fresh and sunny dish filled with soft white asparagus, some lemon zest, cream and a touch of parmesan. White Asparagus Pasta is a great recipe to welcome spring. Asparagus is one of the first veggies that wants to come out in spring. Both the green and white kinds are actually the same, the only difference is the white ones never get to see the sun. They get picked up from the soil with the help of a sharp tool preventing photosynthesis. Its taste is more delicate and buttery and the texture softer than green ones. Preparation of White Asparagus The main difference in its preparation is that, unlike the green asparagus. You’ll need to peel its whole body (except the head) about twice. Because it’s covered with thick fibres which prevent the asparagus from getting tender. If it’s not peeled properly the asparagus…
This colossal MeatBall Spaghetti is a minimalistic touch to a classic meatball sauce. This moist and filled with spices gargantuesque meatball will bring goosebumps to any carnivores guaranteed! Mega MeatBall Spaghetti is a minimalistic version of the classical meatball sauce we all love. This dish will bring goosebumps to any carnivores, a moist meatball filled with spices served in a simple onion-tomato sauce and al dente pasta. I like to cheat myself, especially with food… I would say well it’s not a totally evil dish if I just make 1 meatball instead of many, but the truth is; in the end it’s as heavy calorie wise. Anyway, if I am to sin and eat red meat, better to it right no? This meal is also kind of the story close to my heart. When I’ve met my husband, 10 years ago back in Panama, he used to eat so much pasta that I would call him a pasta…
Shell pasta with an extra tasty onion soup served in a mug topped with a light gratin, fresh parsley and crunchy breadcrumbs. French Onion Soup Pasta is a great way to revamp your onion soup leftovers! This is my first-ever mug meal! Actually, I went to buy the mugs extra for this recipe. A shell-formed pasta served with leftover onion soup and a gratin on top with a few breadcrumbs. In order to recall the “French onion soup bread”, plus it gives the meal an extra crunch. It’s quite simple to make and tasty, so if you have any onion soup leftovers at home, this French Onion Soup Pasta is the way to go! A Catalan Tradition as Inspiration French Onion Soup Pasta in a Mug The Shell Pasta The shell pasta is something you don’t get to see often on your plate. Where I live, in Barcelona, they call it “Galets” and…
The Rovello mushroom (red pine mushroom or saffron milk cap mushroom) I had to present to you the #1, the ultimate, the prestigious, the favorite mushroom from Catalonia, Spain; the famous Rovello mushroom. Called whether Red pine mushrooms or saffron milk cap in english those pinkish/brownish, earthy, meaty mushroom are simply irresistible! Catalans like to go by themselves in the woods to pick them up from september to novembre, it’s kind of a seasonal event. Although you can find them also at the market around Catalonia in the fall, with mountains of other types of mushrooms, but this one, the rovello, is their favorite. The mushrooms are abundant in northern Spain, in the red pines forest and the Basques and Catalans (both located north of Spain) are big fan of mushrooms, their gastronomy is filled with them, although, strangely in the rest of Spain, they are not so popular. Lucky for…
After a week of german recipes… it’s time to go back to an old good friend called Pasta. This pasta is ridiculously addictive, be aware. I have no idea if it’s the mix of texture or the mix of flavors that makes it so irresistible. It’s a terribly simple recipe too, also done under 20 minutes. If you already know vodka sauce you know it’s a pinky cream sauce colored by some tomatoes, usually a tomato paste, but this version I’ve simply used a few fresh cherry tomatoes. It’s called vodka sauce but really there isn’t much vodka in it and obviously it doesn’t really taste like it at all. The vodka here is used mainly as a stabilizer to the acidity of the tomato and the cream which would be impossible to mix without some type of alcohol in the sauce. The vodka could also be substitute by a white wine.…
Creamy avocado pesto zoodles is the new pasta (well…actually; non pasta) in town. I see them everywhere, for guys out there who didn’t catch the “zoodle” vibe, it’s actually zucchini noodles. There is absolutely no gluten, wheat in them and make a great meal for all, especially for low carb diet or gluten intolerant people. This was my first attempt to do those famous”zoodles”, no need to buy those big spiralizer machine to make them, simply use a cheese grater, it really does the trick. It’s a terribly easy, fast and healthy recipe but also creamy and tasty, the avocado make the dish stand. It give the dish this rich creamy texture, which I believe, complete the dish to perfection. Most zoodles recipes out there are using a spiralizer machine, which are expensive and quite big, I’ve just used a mandoline with large cheese grater holes, but some mandoline already have those…
Calamari on an Ink Linguine with a spicy tomato sauce is a great way to spice up your next dinner. If you always wondered how those black ink pasta taste like but never got the guts to buy it and try it out, this recipe will make you buy them over and over again. Everyone is scared of those ink meals for some reason…I guess it’s the fact of eating what you usually write with, it just doesn’t quite belong in a plate. But I assure you, it’s quite the opposite. Since I’ve been living in Spain, they use the ink of cuttlefish for many of their traditional meals like squids croquetas in their ink, the arroz negro (black cuttlefish paella) or those black ink linguine. This recipe comes from my cooking school, well… we had to make the fresh ink linguine by ourself, so in this case, to keep it…
Pasta with chorizo al vino sauce is inspired by the popular tapas :chorizo al vino. The tapas consist simply of cooking chorizo sausages into red wine and a touch of smoked paprika, nothing else. I’ve used the idea, add a little extra veggies, like sweet bell pepper that goes perfectly with the chorizo and served it on pasta. I’ve thickens the sauce with a little cornstarch and tomato paste. A great spanish flavored dish! Chorizo isn’t a spicy “hot” sausage, it’s a paprika sausage which can be softly spicy, sweet or smoked. I’ve used a smoky paprika chorizo for this dish. Those sausage are everywhere here in Spain, but depending where you are, I guess it might be harder to find those 3 types of chorizo sausages. If you want to reproduce the smokey effect with standard sausages, you can add some smoked paprika (pimenton de la Vera) to the sauce, then…
Zucchini vegballs pasta is a great vegetarian version of the famous meatballs spag, even fills you up as much as the meat version. The zucchini balls are made in the oven, so extra healthy, barely any oil used for an ultra healthy vegetarian dish. I saw this recipe in many places online, most of them only contains zucchini, for this particular recipe I’ve done the vegballs with extra onion, garlic and flat leaf parsley for extra flavor. Zucchini’s water Zucchinis are often underestimated, because they contain so much water and get soft and mushy as soon as your cook them. Also zucchini doesn’t have the boldest of flavors… again because it’s filled with water. So… for this recipe, we’ll cook the grated zucchini and onion at first, to release most of the water they contain so this way it’s going to concentrate the flavor. All there is left to do is making…