Spaguetti with tomato sauce revisited

 When it comes to cooking traditional recipes I find it fascinating to revisit the most simple recipes and review step by step little tricks that can make them yummier. Yesterday I tried my version of this recipe by renowned Italian chef Carlo Cracco:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AZ1kuh0pZ_g

Ingredients:

- A package of quality spaghetti noodles (Rao's  or some other homemade brand)

- Extra virgin olive oil

- Water

- 12 cherry tomatoes

- A jar of quality tomato sauce (Organic Italian Herbs from Whole Foods, or a good Italian brand)

- Fresh basil

- 2 cloves of garlic

Preparation:

In a pan I poured a splash of Spanish extra virgin olive oil, and fried the 12 cherry tomatoes sliced until they were a little burnt on the flat side. 

In a pot I boiled the spaghetti noodles with salted water until they were al dente.  

In a pan I fried the tomato sauce in a splash of olive oil with some basil leaves and 2 cloves of garlic that I mashed with my hand. I let it get reduced until half (15 minutes) and sprinkled a little salt.

I poured the cherry tomatoes and the spaghetti in the pan with the tomato sauce and splash some water.

I served it in the plates with some thin cut basil leaves on top.

The result was impressive, two or three little tricks sufficed to make the dish so much yummier than usual! 

Buon appettito ;)

Portuguese Almond Cake

Last week I made this scrumptious Portuguese recipe of Caramelized Almond Cake. Before I make my comments I'm going to get it translated from the website of saborintenso with the deepl.com program. So here it is:

Caramelized Almond Pie
Ingredients for 14 people:

For the Base:
150g salted butter at room temperature
175g sugar
175g unleavened flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 eggs
4 tablespoons milk
For the Topping
125g sugar
125g salted butter
4 tablespoons milk
150g crushed almond kernels
1 32 cm diameter tart pan with a removable bottom, greased with butter, lined with a circle of baking paper and greased again with butter
Preparation:

1. Start by making the base.
In a bowl, place the butter cut into pieces and the sugar.
Beat until it becomes a cream.
While whisking, add the broken eggs one by one to the cream.
Whip until it becomes a homogeneous cream.

2. After the cream is beaten, add the yeast and 1/3 of the sifted flour.
Mix everything together with a spoon and add the remaining sifted flour.
On the last addition of flour, add the milk.
Mix very well until it becomes a homogeneous mass.

3. Spread the mixture on the bottom of the tart pan.
Place in a preheated oven at 170°C and bake for 12 to 15 minutes.

4. Meanwhile, quickly prepare the topping.
In a pan, heat the butter, sugar, almonds and milk.
Stir and let the butter melt.
After the butter is melted, let it boil over medium heat for 3 minutes.
After 3 minutes, remove.

5. Meanwhile, after the 12 minutes of baking, remove the pie from the oven and quickly cover it with the almond mixture to prevent it from cooling and solidifying.
It's not necessary to spread the almonds too rigorously, because in the oven, the sugar will melt and spread evenly.
6. Place the pie back in the oven and increase the temperature to 190ºC.
Let it brown about 7 minutes until the almonds are toasted to taste.
After the pie is blond, remove it and let it cool.
When cool, run a knife around the pie and unmold.

And it's ready to serve.

https://www.saborintenso.com/f23/tarte-amendoa-caramelizada-42146/

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0DJo99QRCK0

Peruvian Cauliflower Sauté

 I always wanted to cook some Peruvian dish. Peruvian cuisine is one of the finest in the world, on a par with Greek or Italian, or as my friend from work Lehidyt pointed out, rather comparable with Thai or Mexican for its variety and complexity of ingredients. Whenever I visited Chicago when I lived in the Midwest, I used to have dinner at Taste of Peru, and enjoyed their ceviche and cilantro rice. So on Friday I asked Lehidyt to recommend me a dish that was not too technical, so that with my limited cooking skills I could make it at home. She recommended me to make a simple cauliflower sauté and a website to follow, Buenazo! from YouTube, where I found the recipe (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wTzQby_axmk), which I cooked without the chicken but turned out amazing.

These are the ingredients I used:

- 1 bag of frozen cauliflower florets 

- 1 medium purple onion cut into thick strips 

- 2 pear tomatoes cut into thick strips 

- 1 red bell pepper cut in thick strips 

- 1 medium Russet potato 

- A dash of soy sauce 

- Chopped cilantro

- Salt 

- Pepper 

- Sunflower and extra virgin olive oil    

These are the preparation steps I followed:

1. First I boiled two cups of water in a pan. When it began to boil and bubbles were visible, I poured the contents of the package of frozen cauliflower florets and covered it, letting it cook for about 15 minutes, after which I set them aside in a glass container. 

2. Next I peeled the medium potato and cut it into long strips that I fried in another pan previously heated with sunflower oil. Once fried and browned, I put them aside in another glass container.

3. In the first pan, once emptied of water and well dried, I sautéed in extra virgin olive oil the onion, the red bell pepper and the two tomatoes, and added the cauliflower florets. I seasoned with salt and pepper and added a splash of soy sauce and covered the pan with the lid. After a while I added the fries, mixed everything together and covered it for a couple more minutes.

It was delicious, finger-licking good, so from now on it will become one of the basic dishes, a new staple in our diet at home, since it is also very healthy. Thanks Lehidyt. ¡Salud and bon appetit!