Wish you all a Very Happy New Year! 2010 ended off on a fabulous note for us and we know 2011 will bring more joy and happiness. Do you make New Year resolutions? I personally don’t. The goal is maintain a healthy life style. We have slowly moved from white rice to brown rice. The only days we eat white rice is when we go out or when we have guests over.
We are certainly cooking at home, but tend to make quick one pot dishes and just don’t have the time to take pictures to blog about it. I write a story in my mind, but it never ends up being typed. Ashwin keeps us on our toes. While he is not a fussy or demanding baby, work has quadrupled at home. Cooking takes a back seat and laundry (sigh) is the winner at home. In between laundry, feeding and changing diapers, we cook.
Last night’s meal was an Italian flavored soup. Simple ingredients, hardly takes any time at all and yet filling and healthy. I wanted to cook with ingredients we had at home. So here goes the recipe. Please feel free to use one tomato instead of paste and fresh herbs if you have them available. I used frozen parsley from Daregal and dried thyme.

Olive Oil – 1 T
Garlic – 3 cloves, finely minced
Red Onion – 1 cup, medium diced
Bell Pepper – 1, medium dice
Carrots – 3, small or 1 large, medium dice or rounds
Tomato Paste – 2 T
Sun dried tomatoes packed in oil – 2 T, finely chopped
Thyme (dried) – ½ tsp
Rosemary – 1 tsp, finely chopped
Vegetable stock – 4 cups
Cannellini beans – 1 can, rinsed
Parsley – ¼ cup, chopped
Salt to taste

• Heat oil in a Dutch oven and when the oil is hot, add garlic and saute until it turns slightly golden in color.
• Stir in the onions and cook until they turn translucent.
• Add bell pepper, carrots, tomato paste and sun dried tomato and sauté well, so that the tomato paste gets well incorporated.
• Add the herbs, give it a quick sauté and pour vegetable stock in to the pot along with the beans.
• Season with salt and allow the soup to simmer on medium low for 15-20 minutes.
• Garnish with parsley and serve warm

This soup is by no means an Italian soup. I used herbs that are used commonly in Italian cooking, that is all.

Sunday with Marlena Spieler

We would like to call this lazy man’s pasta. It is quick, easy and delicious too if you are looking for something light for dinner after a heavy lunch or brunch. The ingredients are really things you will most definitely have in your pantry, at least ours did. This is served cold and cooked the previous day by the Italian Jewish community and eaten on Shabbat, when no cooking is allowed. You really don’t need a recipe for this, it is that simple

The recipe called for Egg noodles, olive oil, Green Olives, garlic, parsley and salt to taste. We used wheat pasta, pimento olives and smoked olive oil. Our dear friend Cynthe, sent us this bottle. It is extra virgin olive oil that has been naturally wood smoked. It adds great depth and flavor to this simple dish. We loved the addition of  the smoked olive oil, Thanks Cynthe!

Dried pasta – 9 oz

Garlic – 1/2 tsp, finely chopped

Extra Virgin Olive oil – 2 T

Chopped Parsley – 2 T

Salt to taste

• Cook the pasta in water that has been salted
• Drain the pasta, add garlic, chopped parsley, chopped olives and olive oil
• Toss well and refrigerate overnight.
• Serve cold.

Make sure you check out what Mel & Eileen have cooked!

We are also sending this dish to Presto Pasta Nights, hosted by Michelle of Italian Mama Chef.