Pesto Penne Pasta

So here is the recipe for the PPP (Pesto Penne Pasta) that we cooked yesterday!

Ingredients:
400 g. Penne Pasta
100 g. Fresh Basil, washed
220 mL Virgin Olive Oil
25 g. Pine Nuts
20 g. Garlic, roughly minced
50 g. bottled or fresh grated Parmesan Cheese
60 mL Honey
200 g. Bacon, chopped
75 g. Sun Dried Tomatoes or Pesto Sun Dried Tomatoes
salt and pepper to taste

Procedure:
1. Cook the pasta according to package instructions until al dente. (around 1o minutes)
2. Blanch the basil leaves and shock in cold water.
3. Drain out excess water and place the blanched basil leaves into the blender together with the pine nuts, parmesan cheese, and half of the oil.
4. Puree on medium speed to high speed. Add more of the oil while pureeing.
5. Add in the honey and season with salt and pepper. Then transfer to a bowl then set aside.
6. Mix together the basil pesto with the cooked penne pasta and garnish with parmesan cheese and bacon bits.
7. Serve with garlic toast on the side. :)

Note:
-make sure that your basil leaves are fresh because it is the vital part for your pesto.


For the garlic toast, all you need are the following:

- butter
- garlic
- kinchay or Cilantro
- salt and pepper (to taste)
- wheat loaf bread or you can use baguette or even the regular pan bread. ^^

Procedure:
1. Place the softened butter in a mixing bowl and add the garlic, kinchay or cilantro, and season with salt and pepper.
2. Cut the ends or edges of he bread.
3. Generously spread the butter mixture and toast it until golden brown in color.

* I did not put the measurements in because I feel that it all depends on your own preference on how you want your toast to taste like.. :)

I think we got a 97% for our pasta which is really great! :) Thanks to my group mates who made this :) I had really nothing to do with this dish.. :))

next post- story of the uncooked pizza dough! :) Now this time it is all me.. (^^)"

My Own Italy!

These are just some of the things we are cooking for our International Cuisine class and these dishes are from Italy.. :D

Penne Pesto

The-looking-great-but-with-uncooked-pizza-dough-Pizza ^^,

Stories and recipes will be posted as soon as I can do so! :)
Have a great week ahead everyone! :)

Seaweed and Egg Drop Soup 紫菜蛋花汤

While I am writing this post, most of the places in Metro Manila are still flooded and out of electricity. While I am here in my room, enjoying the cold weather. Yesterday was surely one of the worst days for everyone here in Metro Manila because almost every major and even minor roads were flooded and everyone was stranded somewhere or some other people had to walk on waist-deep flooded roads just to be able to get home!!! :\

I was lucky enough that I was coming home from school which is just quite near and that even though most areas are flooded, mine wasn't! :) Today, it is still raining! Cats, dogs, rats, you name it! And because we still have a cold weather today, I decided to warm it up with a soup that is very very easy to make! :)

Seaweed and Egg Drop Soup 紫菜蛋花汤

Ingredients:
Dried Seaweed (the thin and flaky one)
1 to 2 eggs
Dried Shrimp
Chicken Stock or just plain water! :)
salt to taste
chicken essence powder to taste
sesame oil (optional)
toasted sesame seeds (optional)

>as you can see there are no measurements here because I did not measure mine when I was making it and I just relied on my personal instinct! :))

Preparations:
- Prepare the seaweed first by submerging it first on lukewarm water and leave it there for a while and drain it by getting the seaweed out. (This will help in removing any dirt that got stuck to the seaweed when it was being dried)
- I also placed my dried shrimps on lukewarm water to give it a rinse.
- Beat the egg and set aside.

Procedure:
- Bring the stock or water to a boil and when it boils, place the seaweed and dried shrimps in. When it re-boils, pour the egg while whisking the soup with a fork to create a thin ribbon resemblance. Season with salt and chicken essence powder. When it reboils, put two- three drops of sesame oil and turn off the heat.
-When serving, top it with toasted sesame seeds :)

This recipe was inspired by this site and also this one! :)


Aside from the fact that it is easy to make, I love the fact that it is also very flavorful! You can also put some meat and even shiitake mushrooms for variations! :D My next post will be something Korean so watch out! :D