Italian

How to make Basil Pesto in India?

All we need to make basil Pesto anywhere in the world are some fresh basil leaves, Pine nut seeds, cashew nuts, few pepper corns, parmesan cheese or mozzarella cheese. You can also check out my recipe for the same here. But in this post I am giving you links where you can buy these things, because generally we think some of the items are not available easily in India. So here is the list and links to buy the same.

Buy Basil leaves from Amazon Fresh

Stuffed Capsicum/ Bharwa Shimla Mirch / Stuffed Bell Peppers

For stuffed pepper

  1. Wash and wipe four bell peppers, remove the stem and seeds, give an oil coat with a drop of oil for each.
  2. Mash boiled potatoes and Indian cottage cheese (paneer)
  3. Heat oil in a pan
  4. Add cumin seeds and turmeric
  5. Ginger garlic paste and onion
  6. Sauté them all till onion gets cooked
  7. Add mashed potatoes and mix well
  8. Add paneer and mix well
  9. Add red chili powder, garam masala, coriander powder, chat masala and salt.
  10. Add cashew nuts and raisins
  11. Let it cook for five minutes so that all flavors blend in.
  12. Remove from heat.
  13. Fill this stuffing in bell peppers
  14. I added mozzarella cheese on two of them
  15. Pre heat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit
  16. Keep stuffed peppers in pre heated oven for 25 to 30 minutes.
  17. Keep checking until the peppers look roasted nicely on outside.
  18. Remove from oven once they are cooked nicely
  19. You should look for some burnt skin of pepper here and there.

For the gravy

  1. Blanch 4 tomatoes
  2. Cashew-nuts
  3. Onions- 2 medium
  4. Cardamom- 3
  5. Bay leaf – 1
    Method
    Heat oil in a pan
    Add cumin seeds
    Add cardamom seeds
    Bay leaf
    A piece of cinnamon
    Add onions and sauté it
    Remove from heat and let it cool
    Cook tomatoes in another vessel and let it cool
    Add salt, red chili powder, coriander powder and garam masala to the onions
    Grind onions and tomatoes in a blender to make it into a smooth paste
    Heat butter in a pan
    Add the tomatoes onions gravy and bring it to boil.
    Now the gravy is ready.

Final step

  1. Reduce the heat of pan with gravy
  2. Keep the baked stuffed bell peppers in the gravy as shown in pictures
  3. Close the lid and let cook for few minutes.
  4. Remove from heat and serve with Roti / naan / chapati / rice.

Organic Spinach and Cheese Ravioli

If you bought frozen Organic spinach and cheese ravioli from costco and wondering how to make a tasty dish out of it, here it is.

what you need is

Half box of Organic Spinach and Cheese ravioli

Tomatoes – 8

Garlic cloves – 5-6

olive oil – 3-4 Table spoon

salt – 1/2 T spoon

sugar – 1/2 T spoon (optional)

red chilly powder – 1/2 T spoon

oregano – 1/2 spoon

dried italian herbs – 1/4 T spoon

water for boiling ravioli – 1 -2 litres

Method

  1. First we need to make the pasta sauce. You can refer to my post on pasta for making pasta sauce. Once your pasta sauce is ready follow the next steps.
  2. boil water in a vessel
  3. Add half box of frozen ravioli to it. It will be around 30 raviolis
  4. let it boil for five minutes
  5. Now remove ravioli’s from boiling water using a skimmer spoon and put it into the pasta sauce.
  6. after transferring all ravioli to pasta sauce let it cook for 5-6 minutes.
  7. Serve it with some grated cheese on top.

This dish is really good for all ages. I made this today at home and including my 27 months old boy everyone liked it.