S13-W2 "I celebrate pasta with flavor and love as a MUST in my household"

^{“Macaroni a’ le @ patjewell” - Canva}

Sophia Loren was the one who said,

"Everything you see, I owe to spaghetti."

Am I a pasta lover? Do I eat it regularly? Long or short?

Oh yes! I love pasta.

My family is forever telling me that I am the most boring person to take out for dinner. I always choose between two things on the menu, a chicken fillet or pasta.

For me, enjoying pasta is not the only reason for loving it. As a housewife, there are four advantages to pasta that make me love it even more.

• If you don’t know what to cook, grab some pasta
• Cooking pasta is super easy
• What you can do with pasta is endless, and
• It is cost effective

Oh yes! I eat pasta regularly.

I should change "I" to "we." We eat pasta regularly. If I say regularly, I mean at least twice a week.

Oh yes! For long and short.

You can give me long past, short past, flat pasta, curve pasta, pattern pasta, and filled pasta. I love them all.

Pasta sauces

My first restaurant was a Portuguese restaurant. When we had to decide on the menu, I added a pasta dish. My partner, who was Portuguese, was not impressed with me. How can we serve pasta in a Portuguese restaurant? Easy, you cook some pasta, add steak strips in a peri-peri and garlic sauce, and add a soft-fried egg on top. I don’t have to tell you that it was one of our best sellers.

The second restaurant was a steakhouse. Again, pasta had to be on the menu. This time, I made it super easy. We added an Alfredo to the menu, which consists of the classic smoked ham, mushrooms, garlic, and cream served with parmesan cheese. To make it different, we added some smoked bacon. Again, a customer favorite.

At home, I cook with various pasta sauces. Today, I am going to name my top 5 favorite pasta sauces.

1. Alfredo sauce: Butter, cream, garlic, seasoning, and white wine.

2. Marinara Sauce: Butter or olive oil, onions, tomatoes, Italian spice, and garlic

3. Spaghetti or Bolognese Sauce: Butter or olive oil, beef stock or ground beef, onions, tomatoes, tomato puree, carrots, celery, red wine, fresh herbs (bay leaves and basil leaves), and garlic

4. Truffle Sauce: Olive or truffle oil, truffle, garlic, pasta water or cream, and pepper

5. White Sauce: Butter, cake flour, milk, garlic, and seasoning

I've learned over the years that it is not the looks but the sauce that makes the pasta!

I like al dente pasta

I am a Curtis Stone follower. One of his signature dishes is mac and cheese pasta. Now, if you have ever seen him cook this dish, either on YouTube or the food channel on your television, you will know too well what “al dente” means.
Not soft... not hard… a bit chewy… just right!

The cooking time for "just right" depends on the type of pasta, whether it is store-bought or precooked, and can be anything from 8 to 10 minutes.

If you have to ask my daughter, she will show you. If you throw the pasta at the ceiling and it sticks, you will know that it is… just right!

What I think of establishments that support the fact that pasta is a powerful contributor to obesity and diseases such as diabetes.

I have one question for them.
"Why do you serve soft drinks and desserts on your menu?"

My recipe for "Macaroni a’ le @ patjewell"

This is one of my family's favorite pasta dishes, and if I say family, I mean it. It even includes our two dogs.

It is macaroni with a twist and consists of, macaroni, a white sauce, ground beef, onions, and loads of garlic, topped with cheese, and then baked in the oven.

Butter or olive oil
1kg ground beef (mince)
250 ml beef stock
1 chopped onion
Cake flour (50 ml)
Milk (500 ml)
2 cups grated cheese
Seasoning

First, you melt some butter in a pot.
Add the onion and cook until caramelized.
Now it is time to add the ground beef and brown it.
Add the beef stock, garlic, and spice to taste. Let it cook.

While the meat is cooking, you cook the macaroni in a pot with boiling water, a bit of olive oil, and salt.
Of importance is not to cook the meat dry. There must still be a bit of sauce. Also, don’t overcook the macaroni, as it will still cook when you bake the dish. You must cook it… just right.

For the sauce, you must make a basic white sauce.

Melt half a cup of butter in a pot.
Add the cake flour and the milk little by little while you stir. Once cooked, you can season it with normal salt or yellow salt.

All that is left is to assemble your dish in layers.

First the macaroni, then the meat, and lastly the white sauce. You keep on packing the layers until your cooked ingredients are finished. The grated cheese is the last layer.

Bake the dish in a preheated oven until the cheese is melted and crispy on top. You can even put the elements of the oven on the grill for a couple of minutes to get the cheese crisp. It is yummy when crispy.

)

While the macaroni is baking in the oven, I will take dog pellets, mix them with the “meat sauce” I kept for them, and divide them into their bowls.

They are so clever and know so well when I am making this macaroni dish that when I open the kitchen door, they are waiting for me.

This is “Macaroni a’ le @ patjewell” loved by the whole family!

^{All images are my own, taken with my iPhone}

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