It's a pasta concoction guys

My first post since march

    As you all may know, I explained or at least tried to explain why I had been absent from the blog in the previous post, feel free to read it if you haven't already. I hope it clears things up.

   Today's post is about a certain pasta or (spaghetti) dish that I made a certain type of way. I think you all are gonna love it. The first step requires you roasting your vegetables, Now this part I saw while scrolling through Instagram one day and I saw a post by awesomedishes in which she was about to prepare stew so she tossed her tomatoes and peppers in the oven for a while to infuse flavor and for a second there I was stuck staring at that particular post, who knew you roast your peppers before cooking with them. *certainly not me*. 
    Anyways after recovering from my roasted pepper shock, I thought "no way I'm gonna try this". so I got up and checked out whatever ingredients I had and decided to whip up a pasta concoction but this time, with roasted peppers.

 Here's a list of ingredients I used

•  8 medium sized tomatoes
• 11 pieces of rodo aka scotch bonnet. *you can reduce the number of scotch bonnets you use if you don't like things spicy*
• 1 small onion bulb or more if you like 
• I pack of pasta i.e whichever brand you eat.
• About a cup of shredded chicken.* boiled or grilled or even fried. leftover chicken will do just fine.
• about half a cup of dried up ugu or ugwu leaves(pumpkin leaves). * you can use fresh ugu or ugwu leaves, dried ones where what I had on ground*
• Curry
• Thyme
• Some Italian seasoning I had in my kitchen. *you can omit them if you don't have them*
• Salt
• Stock cubes 

  The first thing you need to do is wash your vegetables properly, wash your tomatoes, onions and peppers, wash them properly and cut your tomatoes in half.
 Next I lined my baking tray with foil and preheated my oven to 160°C. Now place all you have washed on you baking tray, drizzle some oil *whichever oil you choose to use, olive oil or vegetable oil* over the tomatoes and peppers.
  Also sprinkle curry and thyme over them and place your tray in the oven for about 30 minutes to 1hour. you can take them out of the oven before the 1hour is up, just make sure they get properly roasted for you to achieve the best of flavors, be careful not to burn them tho.

Here, they have been properly cleaned and arranged on the tray covered in oil, curry and thyme.

Look at those tomatoes now, after about 40 minutes, shrunken and have released a lot of juice, don't worry, it can still be used. I discovered there were a few benefits from roasting your peppers before using them in your recipes. Apart from infusing flavor, the peppers have been cooked a little which will definitely reduce your cooking time when you are finally ready to cook with them and also the smell of your kitchen will be absolutely wonderful due to the curry and thyme that has also been roasted all well. I think I just might try roasting my peppers next time I make jollof rice and let you guys know how it turns out.

Next I tossed them in my food processor with all the juice I managed to scrape off  the foil sheet, not leaving any of this pepper goodness behind.

Blend the peppers until you have a smooth paste. you can most definitely use your blender for this.

Next, pour some vegetable oil in a pan *again you can use olive oil if you are choosing to go healthy* heat it up and then toss in some chopped onions and minced garlic. sorry I don't have a picture for that part, I guess I forgot to take a picture.
    Anyways cook your onions and garlic under low heat for about three minutes until they become translucent and then add in your blended pepper mix, still under low heat, cook for about 5 minutes, remember it has been partially cooked already.
   After cooking, you can season with salt and stock cubes to your taste, reduce the heat and let it simmer. Now while sauce is simmring, you should cook your spaghetti in boiling water until it is al-dente. Al-dente means "firm to the bite" i.e it is not raw but it is not fully cooked either. just think of it like you are parboiling your spaghetti, then drain it and set it aside.

You know those Italian herbs and spices I talked about earlier, well its time to add them in. So add in a dash of parsley, sweet basil, origanum and Italian herbs. If all you have are Italian herbs, it would do just fine because it's basically a combination of all Italian seasoning. Also if you do not have any of these herbs and spices, you can leave it out.

Next I added my shredded chicken to the sauce, I didn't have any leftover chicken so I just quickly boiled about 3 chicken pieces and just tore them apart with my hands. I think I would have preferred leftover grilled chicken or maybe fried, but boiled chicken was what I could lay my hands on and it did just fine. Stir that into the sauce and also let it simmer.

Now we are almost finished, we get the parboiled spaghetti that we drained earlier and pour into our sauce, and we give it a good stir. Make sure it all nice and coated, taste to see if you need to add any extra seasoning, chances are you might need to.

 Hope we haven't forgotten about our dried ugwu or ugu(pumpkin) leaves, Now if you are satisfied with the taste of your pasta, then its time to bring these babies in, They would simply just balance your dish out for you and like I said ealier fresh ugu or ugwu leaves would do just fine. Just make sure they are finely chopped and be careful not to add too much.
    Add them in and a give it a good stir, you can take your pasta off the heat now or if you wont be comfortable you can wait for about two minutes before taking it off the heat.

Tadaa..

Here is my quick pasta dish with a pretty tomato rose garnish.. Don't worry tomatoes were not expensive when I made this dish, but nevertheless, I strongly encourage you guys to try out this recipe. Quick dishes like this that are easy to whip up would make your life so much easier and it tastes 10 times better than our regular concoction spaghetti. I think its time to switch things up. Hopefully, you guys feel the same way.

Hello guys

Hello everyone,

    First I'd like to say Ramadan Kareem, may this fasting bring Allah's mercy and peace to all our homes. I know I have been AWOL and I don't even know how to explain it this time, do I blame it on laziness again? Because its not forgetfulness, I didn't forget about the blog. I guess I would say I have been a little busy but not busy enough to ignore the blog for 2 months. I don't know what came over me but I am definitely back.
      Its not like I didn't make anything all through the while I didn't blog, but I didn't document anything, No pictures...Nothing. I didn't even remember. I do have some things that I did a while back and just didn't get a chance to post, I'm gonna start to post them after this post and continue to work on some new things for you guys.
     Once again...oh wait..I have not said it already. I'm sorry I abandoned the blog for so long, I really hope I don't do it again. I don't want to do it again.

  Although, I had been making a lot of cakes all through the time I wasn't blogging, not for personal consumption though, for customers. Yup I bake professionally and maybe I would share pictures of some of my work with you guys and maybe one of these days also post one of my cake recipes just because they are simply amazing and you need to try them.

  So I guess that's about it for this post, just for apologies really. I'm sorry guys, hope you continue to read my blog and try out some of the recipes that I'm also trying out. **muah** *in falzthebahdguy's voice* kizzes... Yup, I'm a fan.