Saturday 18 July 2009

Wonders with leftovers

I have been pushing the last couple of days with ready meals and junk food like burgers, hot dogs and pizzas and Ro hasn't complained till now. Its just plain laziness and also to prove to Ro that he needs me to survive...food-wise at least! I have also run out of almost everything and haven't made an effort to go grocery shopping either. The rains and cold winds have added to this misery and i just don't want to step out of the house. Yes, i go into these nonchalant moods once in a while and no matter what happens, until i feel like doing something, i just wont budge. Awesome right?
It was also the aftermath of a kitchen disaster where i tried to make a caramel something and it all just smoked up. Thank god my smoke alarm didn't go off, and after scrubbing and scratching the hardened caramel off the vessel, i was in no mood to be proactive. So after searching all the cupboards and freezer for an easy dinner option, I came across some pasta, sausages, bacon and asparagus and decided to make something eatable, which ultimately turned out quite tasty.

Wheat pasta (Fusilli)- 200 gms (was all that was left)
Spring Onion- 1 large
Baby tomatoes- 8 to 10 sliced in half
Green chillies- 3, sliced thin
Asparagus heads- 5 to 6, sliced
Pork frankfurters- 3 sliced into coin size pieces
Bacon- 2 rashers
Grated cheddar cheese (mature)- 2 hands full
Maggi seasoning sauce- a few dashes
Tabasco sauce- 1/2 tsp
Salt- to taste

Cook the pasta as per instructions with a pinch of salt. Drain and keep aside.
In a frying pan, fry the bacon rashers. Once cooked, remove and drain on a paper towel and slice into small pieces. In the same frying pan, fry the sausages in the oil oozed out from the bacon (If there is too much oil, pour out some and use the remaining). Remove with a slotted spoon and keep aside.
Now throw in the sliced spring onion, baby tomatoes, green chilli and asparagus and sautee till the asparagus becomes more or less cooked. Add the pasta, bacon and sausage slices, a few dashes of Maggi seasoning, Tabasco and salt and mix well. Do a taste check and if its not spicy enough, you can either put some more Tabasco sauce, chilli pwd or pepper. Towards the end, sprinkle the grated cheddar cheese and give a final stir. The heat from the pasta will make the cheese melt. So it doesn't have to be on fire. Enjoy!

Notes: You can use spinach, green peas, carrots and any other left over veggies for this meal. Ro hates asparagus, but he didn't even realize they were in it:)
If you want to make it a bit more rich, you can add some white sauce. I was lazy, so i didn't.
Instead of spring onions you can use normal onion and for baby tomatoes, the normal ones can be used. I didn't have either of those.
Also, i used both sausages and bacon, but you can choose any one or none at all if you have enough veggies to compliment
Make sure the left over oil from cooking the bacon is used to do the rest of the cooking because it gives that extra flavour to the dish.

2 comments:

Jane said...

I LOVE this dish di...just reading it I know it's yum. I'm MAD about asparagus. I think we grossly underestimate the power of veggies in cooking. Reuben says he HATED pumpkin but after I mashed it up in dal he is MAD about it :D

My Kitchen Antics said...

Ok i don like pumpkin either...and u mashed it up in dal..wow ur children will be really healthy:)
The thing is, I use the ingredients i like only and it usually doesnt comprise of healthy veggies. These were left over and i had to finish it:)
But yeah i like asparagus, if its wrapped in bacon or has loads of salt and pepper seasoning.