Simple Cooking

This is a very simple spaghetti recipe but has that small deviation from the regular. This recipe was shared over by my fab Danish friend while I was studying in Copenhagen. Those were the days when the time and will to cook after an exhausting day in the classes were both scarce and this quick meal was fantastic.

This is, as one says, a pretty firgiving recipe. You dont really need to be too careful with the amounts. A little bit more here and little bit less there, wont do too much damage.

So here's to you Hennie!!






What you need

Half pack of Spaghetti boiled, not too soft
2 tbsp olive oil
2 cloves of minced garlic
1-2 red/green (red looks better) chopped chillies (the big, fat, relatively harmless ones and not the small killer ones!)
3 medium tomatoes cut in boat shapes and deseeded
8-10 sun-dried tomatoes chopped
Handful of walnuts (crushed roughly)
2tbsp full of any sauce you might like (pesto, aubergine, mushroom) or you can add App. 10 fresh basil leaves

How to Cook

In a largish pot, boil some water and add half a spoon of salt and one tea spoon of oil. The salt is so that the spaghetti absorbs some of the salt for taste and the oil is to avoid the spashetti from sticking to each other. This method is universal for whenever Spaghetti or Pasta or Macaroni is cooked a la dente. Be careful of not over cooking the Spaghetti. You should check it by biting a bit of it to see if its soft enough and does feel too dry when you bite it. Strain the water and set aside in the pot.

Next, in a sauce pan, heat the oil and add the chopped garlic and chillies. Fry lightly, then add tomatoes (fresh and dried) and the sauce/basil leaves. You can smell of fried garlic and feel good that something is going right! Cook for about 4-5 min (till the tomatoes are hot and quite soft, not too soggy though). Then add the walnuts and salt (according to taste, one tsp should be fine, but go slow, you can always add more salt later if its not enough) and freshly ground pepper. The pepper should not be the powdered type. That would not taste or look any good. Avoid pepper if you cant lay your hands on the freshly ground one. Cook for 1 min. Pour it into the spaghetti and mix well. Serve hot.

Eating leftover of this is also not bad since the juices are absorbed into the spaghetti even better but its a bit dry...ahhh student days!

Let me know how it turns out...would love to hear from all!