Though Ken and I will pick meat over seafood any time, the Lenten season is that time of the year when we enjoy a variety of delicious seafood dishes. And last week, we got to try UFC Spaghetti Sauce with Century Tuna and Cheese.
I love tuna in sandwich spreads and pasta sauces, so I was looking forward to finding out if I’ll like this ready-made spaghetti sauce from UFC. It’s pretty convenient since you don’t have to get all messy in the kitchen. All you need is to cook up some pasta, then heat up the UFC Spaghetti Sauce in a pan. Perfect for those lazy nights, like the one I was having when I decided to cook this up. 😀
For some reason, the prevailing notion is that healthy foods cannot be flavorful, and flavorful foods cannot be healthy. Fortunately, this is simply not the case with this cheesy pasta with chicken and broccoli recipe. While many dietary fads are advising people to shirk foods that contain carbohydrates, these diets are simply not sustainable. In fact, most dietitians recommend a meal that has protein, carbohydrates, and fats in a ratio of 3:1:1 or even 4:1:1 within two hours of exercising to maximize the effects of the workout. Achieving this ratio is not a difficult or painstaking task, and this particular recipe just happens to fall into this ratio. By making this chicken broccoli pasta recipe, it is easy to find that perfect balance of health and flavor.
On May 26th, I was invited to the launch of My Elba Kitchen Cookbook at The Grove Rockwell near Tiendesitas. I was looking forward to supporting this launch because we have an 8-year old ELBA gas range at home. We use it for cooking delicious homemade dishes and for baking, too. In fact, we recently used it in baking The Cookie Jar’s Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies, as pictured below.
ELBA is a well-known kitchen appliance manufacturer from Italy. They have been in the Philippines for over 20 years and has been one of the most reliable brands out there. When it comes to the durability of their products, I can attest to the quality because of how long we’ve been using our ELBA gas range.
The My Elba Kitchen Cookbook contains 60 pasta recipes that are easy to follow and prepare at home. Being a recipe follower with a little tantyameter (I recently learned this word :D) and some experimentation when it comes to flavor combinations when cooking pasta at home, I would love to prepare some of the dishes featured in this cookbook.
The cookbook is now available at all leading bookstores for only Php 399! So, make sure you grab one. If you want to know what recipes you’d find inside, let me share with you some of the pasta dishes that were prepared right in front of us during the launch by two guest chefs.
First off was Chef Darin Epp from Maxim Cookworks. With him on the photo is the event’s host PJ.
Chef Darin hails from Canada, but expressed his fondness of the Philippines. He’s very entertaining and shared some tips while he prepared two dishes for us pictured below.
Sardine Pasta with Sundried Tomatoes
Salmon with Rosemary and Cream Sauce
Again, take note that these dishes were prepared in front of us. So, that means they’re easy and quick to make. Very effective when you need to whip up a dish at home for your kids or loved ones.
Between the two dishes Chef Darin prepared, I wanted to get a fork and taste the Salmon with Rosemary and Cream sauce. Why? Two words – Salmon and Rosemary. 😀
Next up is Chef Richie Custodio from CCA, one of the top culinary schools in the Philippines today. He prepared five (5) dishes for us with the help of students from CCA.
I would never forget the very first time I had my taste of Pesto Pasta at Fazoli’s, Eastwood City. I was in elementary that time, and like most people my age, I hated herbs and vegetables. My sister and I had no idea what Pesto was back then, and because it sounded delicious (she didn’t want me to order the same thing she did), she ordered that for me. I didn’t enjoy any bit of it, but since it’s a bit expensive I tried with all my might to finish the whole plate. I even remember saying, “Lasang puno (It tastes like a tree),” and it made my sister laugh. So, I learned my lesson and made a mental note to avoid food that has anything to do with Pesto.
But weird as it may seem, I think maturing into an adult is accompanied by a huge change with food palatability. We realize that vegetables aren’t that bad tasting after all, and that our food choices no longer fall under just two taste categories – sweet and salty. There is now the delectable bitter, the sour, or the hot/spicy (though technically spicy is not a flavor or taste. It’s a sensation. Try putting chili on your tongue and on your lip/skin. They experience the same thing – heat.)
Moving forward. As I started exploring the whole variety of flavors I could experience in the world, I found “Pesto” once again. This time, it’s not on a chalkboard menu at Fazoli’s, but on a backlit display of World Chicken at TriNoma Mall, Quezon City. The food adventurer inside me took over, and soon I had a plate with a whopping serving of Pesto Cream Pasta, Potato Salad, and Grilled Chicken with Ranch Barbecue Sauce. If we were not inside a mall, I’d lick my whole plate clean because I was sure I had a taste of heaven. From then on, I would always opt for Pesto Cream Pasta, and even influencing my other friends to give it a try. They loved it.
I had many failed attempts on making Pesto Cream before. Not that I don’t have the skill to make it, but because I found the ingredients to be a bit pricey. So a big thanks to my sister, Mhel, for shouldering the expenses as a gift on my birthday, and to my friend, Katrina Castro, for giving me the idea.
Let’s start with the Basil Pesto recipe. I made this the day before my birthday because I thought it would take hours to finish, but in less than 20 minutes I was done.
Basil Pesto Recipe
Makes about 1 cup.
INGREDIENTS:
3 garlic cloves
1/3 cup pine nuts
Expensive!! Php 360/100grams, but don’t worry you’ll only need 50 grams for this recipe.
You can substitute pine nuts with toasted walnuts or almonds. Cashews should work well too.
2 cups fresh basil leaves (Very cheap!)
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
Expensive! Php 96 for a 250-ml bottle. We bought this brand. It’s the cheapest.
1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
Expensive! Php170+ / 100grams. Perfect Italiano was the only available parmesan cheese available.
Salt and pepper
PROCEDURE:
Note: If you don’t have a food processor, you can use a blender (or a Tupperware Speedy Chopper if you have one) or manually grind the ingredients using a mortar and pestle. Make sure everything’s chopped into bits to minimize grits or coarse grains in your pesto sauce.
1. Chop garlic and pine nuts in food processor. Pulse a few times.
2. Add the basil and pulse a few more times.
3. Add the olive oil slowly while the food processor is running.
4. Scrape down the sides of the processor, add the grated cheese, pulse again to blend.
5. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
6. Refrigerate/Freeze the basil pesto mixture.
FYI: If you refrigerate Pesto Cream, it could only last 1 WEEK max! But if you freeze it, it can last for many, many months.
Creamy Pesto Pasta Recipe
INGREDIENTS:
1 cup of Basil Pesto (Recipe above)
250 ml or 1 cup of All-purpose Cream
2 tbsp. of Olive oil
1/2 kilo of linguine pasta (or any kind of pasta would do)
Salt and Pepper
PROCEDURE:
1. Use a sauce pan on low heat.
2. Add 2 tbsp of olive oil.
3. Put 1 cup of Basil Pesto, then stir to warm it evenly.
4. Add the 1 cup of All-purpose cream slowly, then stir.
5. You can add 1/3 cup of pasta water (the water you used in cooking your pasta) to thin out the sauce.
6. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
7. Cook for 5 minutes.
8. Slowly pour to your cooked linguine pasta (al dente).
Grilled Chicken Recipe
INGREDIENTS:
1 kilo of Chicken Breast Fillet
2 tbsp. of Brown sugar
2 tbsp. Olive Oil
3 tbsp. of Garlic Powder
Salt and Pepper
Lemon Juice / Calamansi
PROCEDURE:
1. Flatten chicken breasts so they would be equal in thickness. You can use a bottle to flatten them or a meat tenderizer.
2. Drizzle generously with olive oil.
3. Add the garlic powder and lemon juice / calamansi.
4. Salt and pepper to taste.
5. Grill until well done, about 5 minutes per side.
There you have it. It’s that easy. I just made my own simple gravy to accompany my grilled chicken and served it with my Creamy Pesto Pasta. It’s a perfectly healthful meal to share with your family and friends. So go ahead, try it and tell me how your own version went.
Sardine Pasta with Sundried Tomatoes
Salmon with Rosemary and Cream Sauce
