Forever Nigella: Ciao Italia

Nigella's shows are extremely fun to watch. And up until today, I didn't know how extremely fun it would be to make her recipes..

I'm taking part in Maison Cupcake's Monthy Blog Challenge called "Forever Nigella". The theme for this month was "Ciao Italia" - to make anything Italianish from Nigella's recipes.

I found this love one called "Italian Chicken and Pasta" at Nigella.com and decided to use that. Partly because apparently the it had all the colours of the Italian flag. And since, Italy's 150th birthday was a few days ago, why not celebrate one's patriotism. (No I'm not Italian no matter how much I'd like to be). It also reminded me of a triple layer sandwich that we make at home.. which reminds me of the Italian flag.

I changed some things around from the original recipe. Here's my version:

Boil 150g of pasta.

Fry half a red capsicum, and half a green capsicum in olive oil.

Add tomato pasta sauce (as much as you'd like!) and stir well. Allow for the mixture to boil.

Toss in some whole black olives.

Add the pasta and stir well with a handful (yes!) of chilli flakes.

Garnish with chopped coriander and mozzarella cheese and serve!

I didn't use any chicken because I thought I had some boiled chicken leftover from lunch.. which I didn't.. And instead of bechamel sauce I used tomato pasta sauce because I'm trying to be healthier.

It tasted really good and was very, very light.

Pumpkin and Cinnamon Pasta with Capsicum, Onion, and Egg Wraps

I made these for dinner today. I didn't really like the recipe for the pumpkin pasta though and I'm thinking to make it again but omit the cream that was used and instead puree some pumpkin.. and so use double or triple the quantity of pumpkin used in this recipe. I'd also add lots more cinnamon. And perhaps some cumin, too..

The wraps were heavenly. I used tortillas, heated them up, spread them with a little of sour cream and sweet chilli sauce. Then, I fried some capsicum and onion and added some balsamic vinegar. I heaped a spoonful of the capsicum mixture on the tortilla and then topped it with some scrambled egg. The hardest part was wrapping the thing!

Pasta

Bottled pasta sauce, boiled pasta, fresh carrots uncooked, bottled olives, dried chives, salt, and pepper.. GOURMET!

Spices, Pasta, and Flour

My favourite part of the entire kitchen is a little shelf that I have where I store all my spices, pasta, flour, sugar and rice. I've placed them all in transparent jars and labelled them in adorable pink round stickers. It makes it very easy to locate things and is also amazing for when I feel creative in the kitchen. All I have to do is stare at the shelf and visualize all the spices I'd like to use.

So, in a little burst of creativity, I decided to play around with the spice jars, and pasta and flour containers and take some photographs. Here are some of them:

:)

Tomato and Herb Pasta

This afternoon while at university, I decided that I really needed a cooking session to unwind. I wasn't in the mood for anything complicated though so I chose to make pasta. Easy, simple, tastes good, and guaranteed results. I made a spaghetti with tomato, walnuts, breadcrumbs, and coriander. I'm thinking that perhaps rigatoni, fusilli, or penne would have worked better with this, though... just cause there wasn't so much of a sauce in this pasta.

A Table, a Main Course, and a Dessert