Wild macaroni

Ingredients (x4):
1 small-ish onion
350 g short pasta
around 200 g of champignons
200 g soy sausage (I can recommend the ones by Hälsans Kök for those who live here up North)
white vinegar
olive oil
cream
bouillon
black pepper
(tiny bit of salt)

Preparation:
Cook the pasta al dente and pour the water off it. Chop the onion and cut the sausage into small pieces. Put the onion and sausage into a pan with a bit of olive oil and roast them. Add a bit of white vinegar plus the champignons cut into slices and keep on roasting for a few minutes.



Then milden the heat and start adding bouillon gradually. Cook on mild heat for 15-20 minutes. At the end add the amount of cream that you prefer and add the pasta into the pan of the sauce. Mix them on mild heat for a while. Ready to serve.

Fusilli with tomato&soy sauce, roasted pine nuts and minced rucola

I prepared this for lunch yesterday and it really made my day!

Ingredients (x2):
160 g fusilli
70 g grinded soy
1 small onion
1 clove garlic
2 tomatoes
1 tablespoon white winegar
50 g pine nuts
30 g fresh rucola
salt
pepper
olive oil
parmesan cheese

Preparation:

Roast the pine nuts on a frying pan if they are not readily roasted.

Chop the garlic and the onion finely. Peel the tomatoes and remove their insides, and then cut them into cubes. Pour some olive oil on a pan and add the garlic. Heat it on relatively high heat until the garlic has gained some colour, and then add the onion. Remember to mix. Soon after lower the heat a bit and add the grinded soy and the winegar, and dust some salt and pepper on it. Mix the soy frequently and let it gain a bit darker colour. Next, add the cubes of tomatoes on the pan. Keep a medium heat and mix the sauce in 5-7 minutes every once in a while.

Cook the fusilli in salted water.

Rinse the rucola and stuff it into a mixer. Add a bit of olive oil and a pinch of salt. Mince the rucola with the mixer.

Pour the water off the pasta. Mix the soy&tomato sauce and pine nuts with the pasta and then (separately) add the minced rucola. Turn the pasta around a bit so that the rucola spreads more evenly. Add grated parmesan cheese on top.

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.

Vegetable&soy macaroni pot

This is a vegetarian version of the Finnish and Swedish dish macaroni pot (makaronilaatikko or makaronilåda in Finland, makaronipudding in Sweden). It's great that this way even vegetarians can enjoy this dish where meat is normally considered pretty central.

Ingredients (x5):
400 g dark macaroni
2 carrots
1 big onion
peas
1 clove garlic
1 vegetarian bouillon cube
½ dl ketchup
1 ½ dl grinded soy
2 ½ dl water
1 ½ dl cheese
basil
black pepper

For the egg-milk:
3 eggs
7 dl milk
salt, grinded paprica, black pepper

Preparation:
Boil the macaroni. Grate the carrots and chop the onion. Fry them in a pan and add the boullon cube, water, grinded soy, ketchup and the spices. Pour the water off the maraconi and add the soy-vegetable mix and grated cheese into the macaroni. Mix and spread it evenly into an oven mould. Mix the ingredients of the egg-milk well and pour the egg-milk on the food in the mould.

You may dust some bread crumbs on top if you want.
Bake in the oven heated to 200 c for about an hour.

Ideally served with ketchup.

Penne in tomato-basil sauce, au gratin

This is the pasta I (or most Italians) do on a regular basis when we don't have any special idea on what to cook, hehe. This is the way I do it. This time I however cooked it au gratin at the end with readily grated regular cheese and parmesan on top. Yum!

Ingredients (x3):
270 g penne (I prefer my penne rigate and integrali)
2 cloves garlic
1 big onion
5 tomatoes
70 g tomato sauce
2 tablespoons white vinegar or apple vinegar
a tiny pinch of dried peperoncino
pepper
salt
olive oil
grated cheese
grated parmesan
basil (fresh or dry)

Preparation:
Cook the pasta in salted water. Grind the garlic and chop the onion quite fine. Peel the tomatoes and remove their insides. Cut the tomatoes into sticks. Fry the garlic and onion on a pan with olive oil, and when they have gained a little bit of colour, add the tomatoes. Add salt and pepper plus a tiny bit of peperoncino. Pour in the 2 tablespoons of vinegar. Cook on heavy heat for some 2-3 minutes and then lower the heat by half. Add the tomato sauce and cook for 6-8 minutes still. At the end add the basil.
Mix the pasta and the sauce together and pour it on an oven baking plate. Add some regular cheese and parmesan on top.
Bake in the oven set to the gratin function for 10 minutes.

Cherry tomato pasta cooked au gratin

This dish is extremely easy to make (provided that you've got a grill function in your oven.) and has very simple ingredients. And it is very tasty because of the few but well-chosen ingredients that really get into their element first in the gratin oven and then in regular oven!

Ingredients (x4):
400 g short pasta
300-400 g cherry tomatoes
3-4 cloves garlic
bread crumbs
basil (fresh or dry)
grated parmesan
salt
olive oil

Preparation:
Heat up the oven to 200 c using the grill function. Wash the cherry tomatoes and cut them in half. Put olive oil on the bottom and sides of a baking pan and put the cherry tomatoes in it, so that they cover the surface of the baking pan. Dust on the tomatoes some salt, grinded garlic, basil in pieces, a somewhat abundant amount of parmesan and bread crumbs. At the end add olive oil on the pan the way that the food gets to gratinate properly. Start the oven and cook the pasta meanwhile. In 15 minutes the cherry tomatoes should be gratinated and the pasta ready. Once you have removed the water from the ready pasta, pour the pasta into the baking pan and mix it with the sauce. Put it still in the oven for 5-10 minutes.

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.

Fusilli with zucchini and tomato sauce

I make this dish quite often. It won't fail and it is not complicated. Celery (the white cube kind) and basil make this dish perfect, but you don't have to run to the shop if you don't have them at home right now. Dried basil is also acceptable. Just as well as fusilli, you can use almost any type of short pasta (from my experience I'd say that conchiglie and orecchiete are pretty good for it).

Ingredients x2:
175 g fusilli or other short pasta
1 onion
1-2 cloves garlic
a small zucchina
3 tomatoes
70 g white celery
2 tablespoons olive oil
salt
pepper
basil
parmesan

Preparation:
Grind the garlic and chop the onion and celery finely. Fry them all on a frying pan with olive oil. Once they have got a bit of colour, add the zucchina that you previously have cut into a few centimeters' long sticks. Peel the tomatoes and remove their seeds. Cut the tomatoes into pieces and add them into the pan. Fry the vegetables on a rather hot heat for some three minutes, then lower the heat. Add salt and pepper according to your taste. As last ingredient add the basil and let the sauce still rest a few minutes on the cooker on low heat. Cook the pasta in lightly salted water and when 'al dente', remove the water. Set the pasta on plates and add the sauce. Serve with grated parmesan cheese.