Kitchen Experiments : Simple and Tasty Pasta

This is one of the first dishes I conjured up, under the tutelage of the lovely Mrs. B. N. I was introduced to the delights of Italian cuisine by this dish - an incredibly quick and easy pasta.

Ingredients:
2 medium tomatoes (nice and ripe)
1 medium onion
1 medium capsicum
2-3 cloves garlic/1/2 teaspoon garlic paste
3/4 teaspoon red chilli powder/paprika
1-2 tablespoons tomato puree/ketchup (for cheating)
1 tablespoon olive oil
sugar, salt, freshly ground pepper and dried oregano - to taste
1 cube processed cheese/2 tablespoons grated cheese (parmesan or whichever you like)
4 handfuls of pasta (whichever shape you like)

Method:
For the sauce:
Roast the capscum (whole) on the stove (on a naked flame) turning it over to char it uniformly.


While the capsicum's getting blistered on the stove, finely chop the tomatoes and onion and roughly crush the garlic cloves


Remove the capsicum, peel off the more burnt black parts of the skin (they'll slip off easily).

You neednt get rid of every smidgen of black, some charred skin is necessary for the smoky flavour it imaparts.
Finely chop the capsicum as well.
Heat the olive oil in a pan, then add the onion and garlic. Saute till lightly golden.
Add the chilli powder/paprika and stir ofr another 30 seconds.
Add the chopped tomatoes and cook on high heat till the tomato juice starts bubbling away rapidly (about 5 minutes)Add the chopped capsicum. Stir.


Now comes cheating time - add the tomato puree or ketchup (I personally prefer ketchup). This gives the sauce a rich red colour and a smooth sauce-like texture - essential if you dont plan to blend the sauce in the blender as the last step.
Next throw in the seasonings - sugar, salt, pepper and oregano. You can lightly crush the dried oregano leaves before adding them to the pan, to release the flavour better.
Add half the grated cheese. Mix and check for taste.
The last step is optional - you can choose to blend the chunky-looking sauce in the blender for a smooooooth sauce (in which case there is no need to chop the tomatoes and onion too finely) or leave it chunky. I prefer to leve it slightly nubble and chunky in texture.


Assembly:

Bring a large saucepan of water to a rolling boil, add 1 tsp oil and 1 tsp salt.
Throw in the pasta and let it cook till it is slightly less cooked than the 'al dente' stage (al dente - cooked but slightly chewy, i.e. not mushily soft)

Drain the pasta and add to the sauce and simmer for 5 mins over low heat till the pasta is al dente and has absorbed the flavour and taste of the sauce. Adjust the seasoning

Garnich with the remaining cheese and peppr-and-oregano.

Serve piping hot (with salad and/or garlic bread, if you wish)and enjoy!

Restaurant(s) Review(s) : Cafe Basilico and Golden Star Thali

Saturday was food fiesta day. (Not good for me, yes, but lets take that up later)
In the early evening, I sampled the fare at Cafe Basilico at Bandra ( Pali Naka, near Gold's Gym - ironic, yes!). The menu at Basilico is an eclectic mix of Asian, Moroccan, Italian and other cuisines with an all-day breakfast menu (Eggs Benedict, Cereal, French Toast etc), soups, salads, sandwiches as well as lunch/dinner options including Moroccan Chicken, Grilled Fish, a multitude of pastas, risotto and my favourite Lamb Peri Peri, served atop a stickily tasty bed of vermicelli rice.
On Saturday though, a friend and I skipped the Lamb Peri Peri and tried the fish steak sandwich instead. The sandwich was quite large and was served with fries and cursory salad (measly portion of fries, according to my friend who has just got home after 4 years in the land of super-sizing, USA). I wish the ketchup was served in a small pot rather than open-them-yourselves sachets (at that price, I don't want to feel as though I am in a chain-store fast food restaurant!). But on the taste scale, the sandwich was GOOD. Thick slabs of fish fillet nicely grilled and served between hearty slices of rustic-looking bread. Yum!
We also sipped on iced tea (nice, what can go wrong with iced tea?) and the intriguing-sounding fennel-and-lime drink (a murky dark green, but refreshing,with the unmistakable sweet flavour of fennel (badishop/saunf). The coffee was good too - and generously portioned in a huge mug.
All this set us back by IN 530. Pricy, but worth the change from the usual run-of-the-mill cafe menus!
Immediately after this generous 'afternoon tea' (for the want of a better term!), I headed to an all-you-can-eat thali dinner at Golden Star Thali (Charni Road). Recently awarded the DNA After Hours Food Award in the 'gourmet rasoi' category, this restaurant has been an old favourite of ours.
That day there were 9 of us in the slightly-garish-and-overdone-yet-looks-like-transit-accommodation restaurant. No sooner did we seat ourselves did the food procession begin. I have eaten here more times than I care to count, but each visit's food parade leaves me slightly dizzy.


Get this - 3 farsaan dishes ( 2 fried munchies, one dahi-dhokla - a tasty take on dahi wada), 3 types of rotis (puris, phulkas and sweetish, crumby biscuit roti, 3 subzis (the bhindi (okra) one was the star), 2 daals (one, the dessertversion sweet Gujju daal and the other with churma), one kadhi, rice, yumy soft khichadi, salads, chutneys, pickles, papads galore - AND 4 desserts! A heavenly malpua - pale golden and buttery soft in the centre with golden-brown crisp latticed edges - and served piping hot! Every bite was a whirl of hot and sweet goodness. Enough to make you high - way better than any chemical drug! Gulab jamuns (tasty but disappointingly mealy and firm in texture rather than molten soft), mohanthaal and doodh pak rounded out the dessert menu.
And every single dish was served at least thrice, if not more.
Every single time, I go with noble intentions of not being a glutton. And every time, I fail. At times, the maitre d' even coaxes you to eat 'just a bite more.'
And you sigh and comply.
Sigh.