Fennel Pasta

What happens when you put two contradictions together when it comes to food?  How would children respond?  This is exactly what I did with the dish below.  My children love anything that has macaroni, pasta or spaghetti.  And my son hates red capsicums that are cooked – my daughter hates zucchini in any shape or form.  This dish has red capsicum and two types of zucchini.  I need to make sure I cater to both their dislikes in the same dish or I would be “unfair” or in their own words, “Why do you hate me more?”  Mothers of teenagers could relate to this sentence I think.

I sometimes camouflage the capsicum with the tomatoes in a salad for my son, and he hardly ever recognizes the taste difference or then mixing the zucchini with the cucumber for my daughter.  In most cases it is just psychological or the looks of the vegetables that put them off.  Besides that, sometimes julienning them or grating them does a lot to disguise the vegetables or the taste. Combine some seasonings with the disguised vegetables, and you have a recipe for success.  The gentle flavors of the dill combined with the lemon and lemon zest do wonders to this dish.  In the recipe below, I did omit the yellow zucchini and instead doubled the green one.

Preparation Time: 25 minutes

Serves: 4

Ingredients:

500 grams pasta/macaroni or spaghetti

1 tablespoon unsalted butter

1 tablespoon pine nuts

1 large fennel, thinly sliced

2 yellow zucchini, thinly sliced or grated

2 green zucchini, thinly sliced or grated

1 red capsicum, thinly sliced

Finely grated zest and juice of 1 lemon

150ml cream

3 tablespoons fresh dill

3 tablespoons parmesan cheese gratings

Salt and Pepper to taste

Method:

1. Bring a large pan of water to boil and cook the pasta according to the instructions.  Drain and keep aside.  
2. In a separate pot, melt 1 teaspoon butter and toast the pine nuts in it till golden brown.  Keep the pine nuts aside.  
3. In the same pot, add the remaining butter and cook the fennel for about 7 minutes or until it begins to soften.  
4. Stir in the two types of zucchini and capsicum and cook, stirring for another 5 minutes or until the vegetables are tender.  
5. Add the lemon zest, lemon juice, cream, dill and the drained pasta to the pot and stir to combine.  
6. Season with salt and pepper and serve immediately topped with parmesan gratings.

 

Tuna with tomato and pasta

I have yet to come across a child who does not like pasta.  The last time we were in Italy for a week, my children ate pasta and pizza all seven days - both for lunch and dinner.  And after we got home, and I asked them what they would like for dinner, yes...the said "pasta".  And since pasta is always easy to make and can always be reinvented, it is a good thing they like it.   For example today afternoon my daughter was upset with me because I did not take her grocery shopping and to McDonald's for ice-cream.  This is usually our Wednesday routine - shopping and then an ice-cream and chatting at the McDonald's close by with both the children. However, today when she learnt I was making pasta, she did not mind me not taking her out.

Sunflower seeds; dried tomatoes &paprika

Wednesdays are my day off work.  I work 4 days a week at office and since the children are off on Wednesday afternoons, I use my parental leave on Wednesdays to be with them.  So the morning I dedicate to doing my chores, chatting with my family in India or just reading and then once the children get back from school at noon, we spend the time doing things together before I then drop then off for their piano or guitar classes.  Before I know it, the day is over.  It is nice because mentally I am more relaxed, but physically it is a hectic day - like for many of us the weekends can also be very hectic days - driving the children around for different activities, shopping, the odd birthday party.  Like I sometimes joke with my colleagues when they ask me how my weekend was, I reply "It is Monday and I am happy I can rest in office today".

Preparation Time: 20 minutes

Serves 5

Ingredients:

2 tins tuna

500 grams linguine pasta

6 shallots

8 cloves garlic

6 tomatoes

1 tablespoon each of dried paprika & dried tomato

2 tablespoon sunflower seeds

2 tablespoon Olive Oil

2 tablespoon basil leaves, chopped

4 tablespoon grated mozzarella cheese

Salt to taste

Method:

1. Boil water and let the tomatoes rest in it for 15 minutes.  
2. Peel the skin of the tomatoes and cut into four pieces and keep aside.  
3. Coarsely grind the shallots and garlic together.  
4. Heat olive oil in a pan.  
5. When hot, quickly fry the sun flower seeds and take them out of the oil and keep aside.  
6. In the same oil, put the onion-garlic mixture and fry for 2 minutes.   
7. Now add the tomatoes and fry for a couple of minutes.  
8. Add the canned tuna and the dried paprika, tomato and sunflower seeds.  
9. Add salt and basil leaves and keep on low flame for another 10 minutes.  
10. Boil the linguine according to the box instructions and serve with the tuna.  
11. Garnish with grated cheese.