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Italian

Lemon-garlic fettuccine

Pasta is a staple in my kitchen. Especially, when it’s weekend. But, I’ve mostly been making pasta in white sauces; alfredo and bechamel. Have tried pesto and a few red sauce variations too, but darling husband has always preferred white sauces over anything else. However, his requests for pasta with a different taste never ended. That gave me enough motivation to experiment with pasta again and again. For I believe, pastas never fail. And, it didn’t this time as well. Tried a new combination of lemon, garlic and cream and I am super impressed with the result, so was my husband.

Rice Flakes and Sweet Potato Crust Pizza

Leftovers are becoming the aunt of innovation! A lot of times, I end up innovating some dish just because I had some leftovers. This pizza is a result of one of those experiments.

I had made poha (rice flakes) last night but ended up soaking more than required. While I was storing the poha, an idea struck my mind. I thought this could become the crust of a pizza. So, the next day, I was looking for something to mix with poha that could bind it and I didn’t want gluten. Looked up the refrigerator and found half sweet potato left from my navratra fasts. And, here is the result – a healthy pizza:

Italian Biga Bread

Someone rightly said, ”Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much.” Me and a very close friend of mine, Shipra, who is an amazing cook and a blogger (see her incredible and lip smacking recipes at https://mygourmetsaga.wordpress.com/) have done quite a lot of things together. From chattering, to serious discussions, from shopping to travelling, etc. Ah, not to forget recipe discussions and cooking. Whenever we are skeptical of trying something new, we do it together, easy isn’t? What else are friends for?

We made our first bread together (braided bread stuffed with cheese and lots of veggies; oh, that was so much fun) and now we decided to try our hands at a biga-based bread. At first, we thought of baking it at the same time, but the fear of failure brought us together and we made it together, yet again. Tell you a secret, this blog is also a joint effort, shhh! 😉

As one can guess, we again got 24 hours to chit chat and gossip while the dough was raising and the bread was baking. So, here is the success story with pride and glory, our first Biga bread – fermented for 15 hours and raised 3 times. The wholes and the crispy crumb tell their own story. 🙂

Cheese and garlic pull apart rolls

Long long ago, when I didn’t even know how to use the oven, I saw this beautiful pull apart bread on the Internet. The bread had everything l like, garlic, cheese(s), and herbs. With the Itlaian cuisine fanaticism, I thought there and then that one day I will make this.

So, the day came and I tried my hands at this beauty. Unfortunately, I don’t have a proper bread loaf till now (I am not a regular baker), so I decided to use my cake tin. So, instead of a pull apart bread, I made pull apart rolls. And, they turned out amazingly good. I think these rolls are my best bake till date. And, yes I served it with spaghetti made in bechamel sauce. Another treat to my tongue. 🙂

Baked Paprika Italiano

Sometimes you have limited ingredients and you crave for something delicious, something different. This is one side dish that I can serve n number of times to all my guests. And, I am sure it will be a super hit like it was when I served it at dinner hosted for some special friends. They were flattered with the twist in the taste.