Pasta con pesto, a little pimped

I didn't know how many persons would come for dinner. My sister and her boyfriend are leaving for the Summer holidays to the South of France, and they might or might not dine with us tonight. I thought of something which can be made easily for 3, 4 or 5 people without problem and it was pasta con pesto Genovese.


I'm a huge pasta fan. You might have noticed as three out of the last four posts involved pasta. I could eat it every day if my dad wouldn't mind.


Just the pesto along with the pasta is good, but it lacks some vegetables and colour for me. So I pimped the dish a bit to suit my taste :)
I also traded half of the basil for rocket. It's both goof on its' own, but why not taking both, then?


Ingredients for 4:
- 400 grams pasta (such as tagliatelle)
- handful of fresh basil
- handful of fresh rocket (rucola)
- 80 grams pine nuts, lightly roasted in a hot skillet
- 200 grams parmigiano reggiano
- 2 cloves of garlic, crushed
- olive oil
- pepper and salt to taste
- 8 cherry tomatoes
- bruschetta herb mixture (I use the one from Oil & Vinegar)


How to:
Cut the cherry tomatoes in half and put them on an oven tray with their rounded sides down. Sprinkle them with the bruschetta mixture. Put them in a 150°C oven for at least one hour. Take care the herbs don't burn, that taste isn't very good.
Grate the cheese. Put it in a pot but keep some aside to serve.
Pull the basil and rocket into smaller pieces and put them in the same pot. Keep a few leaves apart for serving.
Put the garlic, the salt, pepper and the pine nuts in the pot and start crushing all the ingredients together. Pour in enough olive oil to make a thick liquid.
Cook the pasta according to the package and drain.
Serve the pasta with a few spoonfuls of pesto, some dried cherry tomatoes, some leaves of basil and grated parmesan cheese.


Heavy but sooo good ...


Buon appetito!

Pizza from scratch

A few days ago my sister asked me when we would eat Swiss cheese fondue again. I don't like it a lot, but she's doing her exams this month, so no question of hers can be denied I guess. I went for the fondue at the supermarket - I've never prepared it myself, so the shop's will do for the time being.

For myself - not a fan of the bread in cheese combination - I decided to make my own pizza from scratch. 

Knowing my own habits of messing around, I made the dough and the tomato sauce this morning before taking a shower (so that my hair wouldn't be white from flour again). 

Ingredients for a 1 person's pizza dough:

- 85 ml luke warm water

- 1 teaspoon salt

- 2/3 tablespoon honey

- 1 tablespoon olive oil (I used scented oil with bay leaves and peppers)

- 116 grams flour

- 2 to 3 grams instant yeast

How to:

Mix the water, yeast and honey and leave them for a couple of minutes.
Then add the flour to form a sticky dough. Add the salt when all the other ingredients have been mixed thoroughly. It'll look somewhat like this:

Knead for a little while and make a ball of it which you put in a small bowl covered in the olive oil. Cover the bowl with a towel/tin foil/... until it has risen. As I made it early in the morning and the pizza was meant for tonight, I set it in the fridge. 

Ingredients for the tomato sauce:

(enough for 3 pizza's - put the rest in the freezer if not needed)

- 1 can of peeled tomatoes (400 grams)

- 1 little can of tomato paste (70 grams)

- 2 cloves of garlic

- 1 tablespoon basil

- 1 tablespoon oregano

- 1 teaspoon salt

- 1/2 teaspoon black pepper

- 2 teaspoons sugar

How to:

Heat the peeled tomatoes, the tomato paste and the mashed garlic cloves until they cook. Add the herbs, sugar, salt and pepper and let simmer on low heat for at least 20 minutes.

I'm quite fond of my toppings. I think I've not quite often chosen different ones the last couple of years. They're nearly always tomato sauce, cooked ham, parmesan cheese, fresh basil leaves and a little gruyere. You might say it's like pizza prosciutto, but my version.

After assembling the pizza, it was ready to be put in the oven (230°C) for about 20 minutes. I usually depend on my instincts and take it out when I think it should. The crust must be light golden brown in colour and must sound hollow when tapped.

I dare say it's been a really good dinner. I watched my sister and parents eat their cheese fondue and I enjoyed my pizza in the meanwhile :)

Believe me, this pizza tastes much better than it's freezer counterparts!