Italian Dinner in Veera Ishtyle

"When the student is prepared, the teacher will appear"

I have always been a great fan of pasta, cheese, cream, olive oil and hence Italian food. Having spent a fortune in Italian restaurants, it was time for me to learn the technique of making good Pasta. Just as in the saying, Ms. Veera Cooper offered to teach me the art.

Whole Foods Store
Good food requires good ingredients. Fresh vegetables and cheese were purchased from the chef's favorite store, Whole foods. This store has some amazingly delicious fresh cheese, bread, deli products in addition to vegetables, meat and other groceries. A foodie can easily spend more than a couple of hours tasting the samples of bread, cookies, peanut butter/ almond butter and enriching his/her knowledge of available options. Located near WTC site, the prices could cause a few frowns; but the products are worth every cent you spend on them.

Pasta Recipe

Though thousands of recipes are available on-line, this section is here just to prove that I have learnt the recipe now :-).
Making pasta, it turns out, is not a difficult task at all. All you need is a good cook like Veera ;-). Jokes apart, the ingredients required are butter, light cream, pasta, mushrmooms, corn, olives, tomatoes, sliced onions, garlic, spinach, grated Parmesan and any mp3 player (also good speakers).
Pasta is put to boil in water with a little olive oil added to prevent the it from sticking. Simultaneously, butter is heated on a pan. Light cream is added to the molten butter and brought to boil. Garlic and pepper powder are added to the cream while it is getting heated. Time to multi-task: while the aromatic mixture is boiling, the cut veggie mix is sautéed. It is essential that tomatoes (also spinach) are sautéed carefully to avoid a mushy mix. Off topic: Music and cooking reminded the chef's assistant (its me) of his favorite musical instrument. Unlike him, the reader is recommended to stay focused to prevent over-frying the vegetables. The sautéed veggies and boiled pasta are mixed with the cream to get an entrée approximately like the one in the picture above.

Venting out my frustration! (Ignore this if you are not used to me)
What are these weekend ideas for, if you can't vent out your frustrations? At the time of writing this article, I was extremely tired with giving accurate explanations, references and pointers, thanks to a series of scientific report writing excercises. In order to cater to my laziness, I have taken the liberty of assuming that a common reader, unlike a scientific one, will figure out which picture is being referred to in what context.

Tart: The Surprise Addition

The recipe for Tart was beyond the scope of author's comprehension and certainly a topic for another blog. Hence the reader is left to run his/her imaginations free based on the picture.

The outcome of this experiment was a great two-course Italian meal and numerous other interesting ideas. An attempt of this kind is strongly recommended for anyone who is even remotely inclined towards Italian food. Before I forget, remember to add the secret ingredient; the confidence that it will turn out tasty ;-).


TJ