Pesto Fish with Macaroni

Macaroni or pasta or spaghetti is a hit in our house any day.  The children would eat just about anything if it is served with macaroni or pasta or spaghetti.  Add some home made pesto to the macaroni and you have a good mixture of fresh vegetables and cheese and nuts also in the diet.

I add some fresh garlic pods to the pesto as it is good to fight against the cold.  The temperature here has been dropping again and more snow is expected next week.  Paris was in a complete chaos yesterday and today with the amount of snow that fell.  The children have to walk or cycle in the bitter cold to school and garlic helps keep their immune system strong.  Hence you will find a lot of garlic in most of my dishes.  

Macaroni

Last time I was in India, I got 2 kilos of garlic with me.  The garlic I found here in Belgium were the big tasteless Chinese garlic.  Then a good friend introduced me to the French purple garlic.  It is big like the Chinese one, but the taste is very good.  So I used all my Indian garlic in my garlic-ginger paste which I have preserved and use the French garlic for everyday cooking.  Of course the price of the Indian garlic was 75 rupees a kilo (about 2 Euro) and the French garlic costs 10 Euro a kilo (i.e. 600 rupees a kilo).

Preparation Time: 20 mins

Serves 4

Ingredients:

1/2 kilo white fish fillet

500 gms macaroni

3 tomatoes

10 cloves garlic

Fish

200 gms parmesan cheese

2 tbsp pine seeds

1 bunch basil leaves

1/4 cup olive oil

Salt & black pepper to taste

Boil water in a pan and add the macaroni.  Cook according to the box instructions.  When ready, drain the water and keep aside.

Pesto and macroni mixed

Make a coarse paste of the basil leaves, pine seeds, basil leaves, garlic, tomatoes, half the parmesan cheese and half the olive oil with some salt.  This pesto can also be prepared a day in advance and stored in the refrigerator for use the next day.

Heat the rest of the olive oil in a pan.  When hot, put the whole fish fillet in and cook on low flame.  With a fork, gradually shred the fish as it starts cooking.  Add the pesto to this fish and cook for 2 minutes.  Now mix the drained macaroni to the mixture and stir well.  Serve hot garnished with the parmesan cheese.