June 25, 2011 - Italian dinner at home
I've been home for a week now and LJ and I haven't had the time to have a Fridate/date because of so many things we both have going on. I have been telling LJ that I'll start cooking meals for us since eating out every weekend doesn't go cheap. So, I decided to cook a nice Italian dinner at home and share with you the recipes. Now you can share it with your loved ones at home too! I believe that no restaurant is better than a home cooked meal made with love. :)
For this weekend I cooked Sausage Tomato Sauce and Tortellini Pasta filled with Cheese and Spinach. (Recipe from my Mom)
Ingredients:
Olive Oil
1 Garlic (minced)
1 Large Onion (minced)
4 chinese sausages cut thinly
10 pcs regular sized tomatoes or 5 large ones (cut into inch pieces)
2 pcs regular sized eggplant (cut 1/4 of an inch thick)
1 sayote (peeled and cut into cubes) or ZUCCHINI
1 can whole peeled tomatoes
1/2 cup red wine/cooking wine
Salt
Pepper
Italian Seasoning
Fresh Basil Leaves (for garnish)
Fresh tomatoes used for pasta sauce is always the best! :)
Chopped up ingredients
You can use any sausage that you like. (Italian sausages, Chorizo Bilbao, Spicy Chorizo, it all works well! ) A good brand of olive oil is a must! :)
I like Chinese sausage because it has a sweet taste and goes well with different flavors of the sauce!
Fresh Basil and lots of it! Gives a fresh taste to the pasta. (No need to cook it in with the sauce, just eat it raw! )
Pasta:
I bought this pasta in the States. I will try to find it here in Manila and let you know where you can buy it. You can also use, fresh ravioli or just regular pasta that you like.
Tortellinis are pasta filled with spinach and cheese. I really hope they do sell these here in Manila!
Procedure:
To start off, sautee the garlic and onions in olive oil (be generous!). Heat them up real good so all the flavors come out. Then, throw in the sausage when you see the onions become translucent.
What I love about this dish is that you can just put all the ingredients in one pot and just wait for it to simmer. Here I added the tomatoes, eggplant, sayote, canned tomatoes, wine and the seasoning. Mix them all up and let it simmer.
After 30 mins of simmering in medium heat, the sauce will thicken up and look like this :) (It smells so good too!)
Plate the pasta, add sauce and loads of basil leaves on top! It's really so good!
The dinner was a success! LJ was so happy with what I cooked. More recipes to be posted when I cook at home. Try it yourself and I'm sure the people you will cook for will be impressed! :)
Have a happy week ahead!!
UPDATE ON JULY 30, 2011:
My cousin was kind enough to let me know that she found tortellinis in the supermarket here in Manila. She saw a pack in LANDMARK SUPERMARKET in Makati. A small bag that can feed up to 4 people is only Php 114. Here's what it looks like:
