Creamy pasta with bacon, ricotta and tomato

Now, doesn't that sound good ^^?

It's extremely easy too, if you cheat with bottled tomato ricotta sauce :p.. Not that you should, of course. ^^

Creamy bacon, ricotta and tomato sauce (inspired from thekitchn)
~ serves 4
4 slices of streaky bacon, sliced/diced
1 onion, diced
3 cloves of garlic, minced
4 sundried tomatoes, sliced thin
1 bottle of tomato ricotta sauce
1 tbsp of tomato puree
a dash of extra virgin olive oil
cooked pasta, of own preference

1. Saute bacon in a non-stick pan till golden and fragrant. Add diced onions and minced garlic, and stir fry till onions turned translucent or cooked. For some zing, add finely sliced sundried tomatoes.

2. Mix in ready-made tomato ricotta sauce (add some pasta water to dilute sauce a little if preferred). Add tomato puree if you like a more tangy sauce and bring sauce to a boil. Simmer for a few minutes, add a dash (or two ^^) of evoo and remove from heat.

3. Mix pasta with the sauce till well combined, and serve immediately.

I know, I shouldn't resort to bottled sauces.. but that bottle of tomato ricotta sauce looked too enticing on the supermarket shelf! I couldn't resist! ^^||

When fatty hubby requested pasta for dinner, I knew that bottle of sauce would come in handy ^^! A cheat-cook gotta do what a cheat cook does best with the limited resources that she has! ;p

I'm really not big about pasta and all.. so I really didn't expect much of this.

But this sauce just became my favorite tomato based sauce.. ever!!! ^^ I really, really, really like this.. big time!

home alone.. and a light dinner

I was on my own last weekend..

And about to take the easy way out (take-out ^^) when I visited jasline's blog and saw the tuna and lemon spaghetti recipe she shared.. and changed my mind ^^. For the original no-cook recipe, check out martha stewart's.

I combined both jasline's version and martha's.. and found this pasta really light on taste, even with the addition of garlic (as per jasline's adaptation), grated parmesan cheese and chili flakes. There's just the slightest hint of lemon in the pasta, which goes quite well with the tuna. However, I couldn't quite taste the breadcrumbs, but it could be my fault for using ready-made ones ^^||. I also replaced the kalamata olives with sun-dried tomatoes ^^.

Well, as much as I like hearty and robust meals in general, I also enjoy an easy, light and refreshing pasta dish like this occasionally.. on my own, of course. (^^)

Big loves mentaiko pasta!

This is my 2nd surprise for big pig's 3-day food treat ^^.. mentaiko pasta.

Big loves anything mentaiko.. you can be sure he'll order mentaiko pasta (or mentaiko-anything!) if he sees them on the menu. He's adventurous like that ^^. We're not, even though we agree that mentaiko pasta is very, very yummy ^^.

So when nami of justonecookbook shared her mentaiko pasta recently, I knew I HAD to make it for big!!! Especially when she made it look so do-able ^^! Never mind that I was already set on making pasta with anchovy sauce! And so I decided to make BOTH ^^!.. and THAT's how the 3-day food treat came about ^^.

Anyway, even though I can tell mentaiko pasta consists of very few ingredients, it has never crossed my mind that I could make them at home.. all I associate mentaiko with ~ is that it's yummy, special, gourmet.. but mainly, it's pricey ^^||!

Well, it's not that pricey, nor elusive, after all ^^ In fact, it's affordable and easy to find at my favorite supermarket, isetan ^^.

Anyway, I love the briny mentaiko concoction! It's creamy and rich, but not as filling as a carbonara sauce.. yet it's also a wee-bit tangy (japanese mayo!) which makes it refreshing too (??!).. But best of all, this is another super easy, yummy, dreamy, delicious and SPECIAL (^^) pasta even kitchen lazy-ies (like me!) can make ^^. So head over to nami's blog for the recipe, step-by-step guide and beautiful pictures! (^^)

Big LOVES this as much as he loves the lighter anchovy sauce pasta! All of us enjoyed this too. I'm happy ^^

p.s. this is the first time I bought and cooked squids.. can't say i enjoyed handling them.. then again, i don't like handling raw - anything, except sashimi ^^ i think i can do it again.. maybe.. (^^)

p.p.s. i  doubled the recipe ^^ this pasta is best served with a generous sprinkling of chili flakes/powder to counter the creamy rich sauce. (^^)

A special pasta for my special Big ^^

I can't say I'm a big fan of pasta.. any kind for that matter.. I like it ok ^^

But big pig is. And to celebrate his upcoming 16th birthday in 3 days time, I've decided to give him a 3-day food treat! (^^)

This is a recipe I picked up from the little teochew last month, bookmarked for special days like this ^^.

Pasta with anchovy sauce (recipe from the little teochew, original from bread et butter)
~ serves 2-3 (maybe not..)

1 LARGE yellow onion
3-5 cloves garlic
30g anchovies (actual weight), chopped or minced finely (discard oil/liquid)
5 tbsp olive oil
1-2 tsp brown sugar
2 tbsp butter
2 whole cloves (I omitted this as I didn't have any ^^||)
1 tbsp water
pepper, to taste (optional)
grated parmesan & chili pepper/powder, to season (optional)
chopped parsley, to serve (optional)
2-3 sun-dried tomatoes, sliced (optional)
250-300g pasta of own preference

1. Finely chop the onions, garlic and anchovies. If you like a smoother paste/sauce, process onions and garlic till fine. (I just minced mine ~ no way am I washing more items than necessary! ^^)

2. Heat olive oil in a non-stick pan over LOW heat. Add onions, garlic and anchovies and cook till fragrant, around 8-10 minutes.

3. Mix in 1-tsp of sugar to sauce, cook for a minute, then taste. If mixture is still too salty, add another tsp of sugar. (I didn't like the taste with just 1 tsp sugar.. so I added the extra tsp.. which tasted about right ^^)

4. Stir in butter and cloves (it's ok, if you don't have it ^^), then water. Let it simmer for a minute or so, and remove from heat.

5. Serve cooked pasta with anchovy sauce, mix thoroughly. Season with pepper, grated parmesan, chili flakes and garnish with chopped parsley or anything you like. Ju of the little teochew suggested adding sun-dried tomatoes ~ and they are absolutely gorgeous with this pasta!

This really is a super easy, fast and simple SUPER-LICIOUS pasta! Big LOVES it!!! So did baby! which was unexpected ~ he's a bit like me, not exactly a pasta-fan.. and definitely not anything briny nor fishy! He had seconds.. just so you know how good this is ^^! Mama pig likes too ^^

Oh yes, please make more if you are cooking for more than 2 persons.. this recipe barely feeds 3 (^^||).. this is from an *oink! oink!* point of view (that's me! 'cos I barely got a bite ^^||) ^^ Thank you so much, su-yin and ju for sharing! (^^)

p.s. i just realized that this is a relatively inexpensive dish (that sounds and taste pricey at restaurants!) and way too easy to make at home (^^)...

One dish, many meals

You didn't think I'd really slave over dinner, did you?

You guessed, right! Tonight's dinner is leftover cooked minced beef from the bibimbap dinner, 2 nights ago.. in spaghetti sauce (ready-made, of course). I feel rather clever about this (^^||).. And fatty hubby is no wiser.. He didn't make the connection with the weird beef sushi too (^^).

And since we needed some veg, and fatty hubby loves soup, I decided to make a simple soup out of spinach and egg. Just add 2 tbsp of soy sauce and some salt to season. And you have a healthy, clear soup ready.

fatty hubby's favorite, spaghetti bolognese 

Believe it or not, I still have a portion of cooked minced beef left.. so watch out for my next "one dish, many meals" creation.. soon (^^)

No cook creamy tuna pasta

Finally! I have my salad cream and I'm all set.

Another super duper easy dinner. No cooking required. Just throw the tuna chunks, sweet corn and salad cream together. And we are done! Oops, the pasta..

I like salad cream. Add lots.. oops! I mean enough. The mixture should be on the creamy side. Add to pasta. Season with some chilli flakes.. and tuck in!

I really like the simplicity of this pasta. It's light and sweet (corns), with a hint of tang (salad cream). And it's really refreshing especially served chilled on a hot day. For a balanced meal, add some salad greens.

This pasta is so easy, no recipe needed. Once you've tasted it, you'll remember for life and can make this anywhere, anytime. I know, because my chubby big brother made it for me once long, long time ago and it's stuck since.

Make extra, it's that good! (^^)

It's plate-licking good!