Fusilli Pasta Soup

Call it best of both worlds - I love fusilli pasta and he loves tomato soup! Such a warming soup for a cold night :-)

Well, it has been 17 days since I posted something new here! That would be the 2nd longest break, since I tried putting together this blog. A lot has been happening and of late, I have not been cooking much, mostly because I was unwell and yes, as they say - all is well that ends well! As long as I am back and determined to keep the blog going, I will cook and click.

Today Pradeep has an official party to attend (I envy him whenever he gets to attend a party without me, coz I so miss good food!). The party would get over around 9 and he was kind enough to mention that he would be totally stuffed by the time he gets back home and that he would prefer a light dinner! Anytime! :-) I am so happy when I do not have to do elaborate cooking. Now what would that be? Soup definitely, but with what? I had a bit of fusilli pasta lying in my kitchen cupboard; that will not suffice me for any main dish. So I went ahead with my search for pasta soups and as usual bumbed into one, which apparently is an Italian favorite, called Zuppa. Yes the name definitely sounds interesting and the ingredients list is a lot more interesting, in the sense, it just uses very basic stuff that an avergae cooking enthusiast will easily have in her kitchen cupboard. Although I did not have 2 ingredients what the original recipe suggested, I think I could pretty well manage a tasty soup out of what I had.

I have spoken about my love for fusilli pasta; do not know if I admire the shape more or the end product after I cook it. It's been a while since I promised Pradeep a tomato soup, and it so happens that now is the time! :-)

Ingredients:

Fusilli pasta - 1 Cup
Onion - 1 small, roughly chopped
Garlic - 6 cloves, roughly chopped
Dried chilies - 2, roughly chopped
Olive oil - 2 tablespoon
Tomatoes - 2 medium, pureed
Fresh cream - 1 tablespoon
Italian herbs - 2 tablespoon
Freshly ground pepper - 1/2 tablespoon or as per taste
Salt to taste

Preparation:

1. In a mortar or blender, coarsely grind together the onion, garlic and chilies. Keep aside.

2. In a wide mouthed pan, heat olive oil in medium flame. Saute the groud mixture, add the tomato puree, pasta and about 4 cups of water. Increase to high and let it boil.

3. Once pasta is cooked, lower the flame to low, add the fresh cream, stirring to ensure the soup doesn't boil further. Cook for another 5 min

4. Add salt, pepper and the herbs; mix well to combine.

5. Serve warm as it is or if you may wish with homemade croutons.

Healthy Vegetable Quiche

Healthy because I used a whole wheat crust and vegetable filling

December, till now, has been packed with events, at home as well as work. Things mostly kept me busy on all working days and I was happily lazy, sleeping most of the time and having fun with friends on weekends! And yes, I have been cooking quite a lot. The facts that it has been easily 9 days since I blogged was actually hitting on me and today I just made up my mind to put up a post that I have been holding back for a while now. It took me a great deal of determination to put together this blog again and I am not not planning to let this go to sleep mode this time!

Vizag Navy Ball got over leaving behind the realization that I have put on weight! Yes, now officially, I belong to the healthy lot (I am sure my old buddies would have hard time digesting this fact). Seeing all those beautiful youngsters walking the ramp for Navy queen, it really had me thinking that I am good the way I am but may be a few pounds less. No, I haven't taken an oath as such, nor have I decided to go on a weight loss new year resolution but yes, I am deliberately trying to make healthier versions of the dishes I love to eat. So probably, you will see many healthy dishes along with some not so healthy ones.

So the other day, after my work, I was sort of too hungry and quite unlikely that day I didn't have any snacks in store. When I am hungry, being tired is not something that will hold me back from cooking, so I diligently spent some time browsing for recipes and bumped into quiche recipe. The original recipe called for all purpose flour crust and butter, however, as I wanted something that would make me (and my hubby) feel less guilty I made my own experiments and to say the least, the output was yum!

Ingredients

Whole wheat flour - 1 Cup

All purpose flour - 1/4 Cup

Olive oil - 100 gm

Cooked mixed vegetables - About 1 Cup (I had some leftover carrot and potatoes stir fry, which I used along with a bunch of spinach leaves lightly tossed in a heated pan about 1/2 a minute or so)

Chicken sausage - 1 of 4-5 inch length, sliced and cooked (optional)

Low fat shredded mozzarella cheese - 10 tablespoon

Eggs - 2 beaten

Water as needed

Salt to taste

Sugar to taste

Preparation

1. In a bowl mix cooked vegetables and sausage (if adding). Keep aside. I did not add salt to the filling because the stir fry and sausage already had salt in it.

2. Prepare the crust by mixing together the flours, salt, sugar and olive oil with enough water until it forms a firm enough dough which can be rolled out (like as you would for roti)

3. Make 1 inch balls and roll it out. Using a lid or a sharp vessel top of about 3 inch diameter, cut the rolled out dough, so as to give it neat edges.

Cooking

4. Preheat oven at 180 degree C.

5. Line a muffin pan with muffin lines/paper cups and keep the cut out rolled dough in each mold. This recipe would make about 5-6 quiches.

6. Spoon out the beaten eggs equally into the molds followed by the filling. Top with cheese (about 1 1/2-2 tablespoon cheese for each quiche.

7. Pop it in the oven and bake for about 15 min or until the cheese melts and crust is firm. 

Serving

8. Serve hot as am evening snack or starter for parties!

I loved it and this dish doubles as an easy way to use up your veg or non veg leftovers!