Veggie Pasta Au Gratin

Italian food in the U.S. has always been confusing to me. Apart from the cheese, marinara and pesto, I’ve seen very few Vegetarian Pasta options. Though I love Pasta, I have always craved for more flavours in it. Then, one day, my friend suggested a dish with vegetables and white sauce. This was served with bread in her house.

I learned the recipe for the “Veggie Au Gratin” and tried to infuse it with Pasta and trust me, my husband and I loved it.

Ingredients

White Sauce

1 tbsp - Butter

2 tbsps - Wheat Flour/ All purpose flour

½ cup - Milk

Salt

Pepper

Vegetables

Green peas

Corn nib lets

Potatoes

Carrots

Bell peppers

Pasta of your choice, olive oil, and Italian seasoning.

Method

 White Sauce

Heat the butter on low heat. Once it melts, add the flour and mix well. Once the flour becomes crumbly, add the milk and let it boil for while. Stir constantly. When the mixture thickens a bit, add salt and pepper. Mix well and remove from stove.

Pasta

Boil pasta with a little salt in a pot. Once the pasta is done, drain the excess water and let it cool.

Chop the vegetables into small pieces. Sauté the chopped vegetables in olive oil; add salt and Italian seasoning. In a big pan, mix the cooked pasta,  sautéed vegetables and the white sauce well. Preheat the oven at 350°F. Grease a baking dish with a little butter and pour the mixture in.  Add grated cheese and bake for 10 – 15 minutes.

Garnish with freshly ground black pepper or red chilli flakes.

Note - The white sauce proportions given here work well for the pasta recipe but it you are making white sauce for anything else the proportions are - equal amounts of flour and butter and milk (10 times the amount of flour and butter). So if you take 1 tbsp each of flour and butter, you will need 10 tbsps of milk. (This information is from a student of Hotel Management).
Also, if you are using coarsely ground whole wheat flour, make sure your sieve it before using. Else the white sauce might get lumpy.

Gingerbread Biscotti

‘Biscotti’ means ‘twice baked’ in Italian. Here is a really simple and delicious biscotti recipe.

Ingredients

1/3 cup - Vegetable oil

1 cup - Sugar

3 - Eggs

2 1/4^th cups - All-purpose flour (I neglected this completely and used whole wheat flour only)

1 cup - Whole wheat flour 

1 tbsp - Baking powder 

1 ½ tbsps - Ground ginger 

3/4 tbsp - Ground cinnamon

1/2 tbsp - Ground cloves

1/4 tsp - Ground nutmeg

Melted chocolate for drizzling (optional)

Method

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Grease a cookie sheet. In a large bowl, mix together oil, sugar, eggs, and molasses. In another bowl, combine flours, baking powder, ginger, cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg; mix into egg mixture to form stiff dough. Divide the dough in half and shape each half into a roll the length of the cookie. Place rolls on cookie sheet, and pat down to flatten the dough to 1/2 inch thickness.

Bake in a preheated oven for 25 minutes. Remove from oven, and set aside to cool.

When cool enough to touch, cut into 1/2 inch thick diagonal slices. Place the sliced biscotti on the cookie sheet and bake for an additional 5 - 7 minutes on each side, or until toasted and crispy. Once the cookies have cooled, drizzle with melted chocolate and enjoy these crispy twice baked cookies with a hot cup of coffee...or tea!!