Mushroom fusilli

I have usually been doing this dish with tagliatelle, but due to my boyriend's kitchen experiments of one evening, I didn't have tagliatelle left anymore and I opted for fusilli. It was a good choice (these fusilli here are by a Dutch brand and their shape reminds me more or less of worms ;) I have made this with different kinds of mushrooms. Make sure your mushrooms are not poisonous!

Ingredients (x2):
180g tagliatelle, fusilli or another pasta
2 cloves garlic
300 g mushrooms
olive oil
cream (if you want it lighter, use milk instead)
a tiny bit of peperoncino
salt
pepper
parsley (fresh or dried, but preferably fresh)

Preparation:
Start boiling the pasta in abundant salted water. Chop one of the garlic cloves and cut half of the mushrooms into small pieces. Add the chopped galic clove on a pan and heat it, and soon after add the mushrooms you preciously cut into pieces. Fry the garlic and mushrooms for 5 minutes and add the spices (except the parsley) on the pan. During or after this pour the remaining garlic clove and remaining mushrooms together with the parsley into the mixer, and add a bit of olive oil. Mix these ingredients fine with the mixer in order to obtain a puré. Add this puré to the pan where the pieces of mushrooms are. Fry for a for more minutes. At the end add the cream or milk and lower then heat to below medium. Mix the sauce and take a few minutes of time until the sauce becomes more creamy. Pour the water off the pasta and mix it with the sauce. Serve with parmesan cheese.

Farfalle with soy-tomato-zucchini sauce

Ingredients (x3):
260 g farfalle
1 onion
1 clove garlic
150 g grinded soy
1/3 zucchino
2 tomatoes
4 tablespoons tomato puree
1 tablespoon white vinegar
olive oil
salt
black pepper
parsley

Preparation:
Remove the seeds of the tomatoes and peel them. Start cooking the pasta. Chop the onion and grind the garlic. Heat these two on a pan with olive oil. Pour the grinded soy on them. Cut the zucchino into thin sticks max. 3 cm of length and add it on the pan. Cut into small cubes the tomatoes that you previously peeled. Add the tomato cubes on the pan along with tomato puree. Keep the heat pretty high but not at maximum. Add a tablespoon of white vinegar. Add salt and black pepper according to your taste. Cook on high heat for a couple of more minutes and then let the sauce cook on lower heat for still some minutes.

When the pasta is al dente, pour the water off. Serve the pasta with the sauce and with chopped parsley.

Spaghetti with parsley cream

This dish is very easy to make and the result tastes soft, charming and fresh. With the short preparation time of some 15 minutes it's a good one to make even if you're in a hurry. Capellini are just as suitable as the good old spaghetti.

Ingredients (x2:)
175 g spaghetti or capellini
15 g parmesan
60 g crème fraîche
1 medium-sized onion
4 tablespoons chopped parsley
salt
black pepper

Preparation:
Chop the onion and put it into a pan with along with a bit of water. Add the cream on the pan and mix to form a crema out of it and add salt and black pepper. Heat up the crema. Chop the parsley and add it into the crema. Cook the pasta in salted water and when ready, pour the water off and serve it with the parsley cream and grated parmesan.

Penne with tomato and aubergine sauce

Feel the need to break away from the usual (at least for me the most usual) tomato sauce? Introducing just one additional ingredient, such as aubergine (for you on the other side of the ocean; eggplant) is a nice variation. With this pasta sauce your meal will surely feel filling and satisfying. Penne and pipe rigate are the best shapes of pasta for this one.

Ingredients (x2):
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 onion
1-2 cloves garlic
2 tomatoes
1 dl tomato sauce
½ aubergine
2 tablespoons white vinegar or better yet, apple vinegar
about ½ dl milk
salt
pepper
parsley
parmesan or grana padano

Preparation:
Peel the tomatoes and remove their seeds. Grind the garlic and onion. Fry them on a frying pan with three tablespoons of olive oil. Cut the half aubergine into cubes. Place them as well on the frying pan and keep the heat still pretty hot. Pour ready tomato sauce on the pan and then cut your tomatoes into pieces and add them into the mix. At this point, add salt and pepper according to your preference. Add the vinegar also. Lower the heat by half and cook it for 4-5 minutes. Then start adding milk little by little. The colour of the sauce will get lighter and the taste will get a softer and more delicate feeling to it, but don't make the sauce look almost orange by adding too much milk. Cook the pasta in salted water and when al dente, pour the water off. Put the pasta in the frying pan and let it be together with the sauce for a while. Chop some parsley that you'll serve it with and grate the cheese. You can serve it either now or if you want, put it on a heat-resistant dish and top it with grated parmesan or grana and let it be in the oven heated to 200 c for a while. Add parsley right before serving.