Layered Pasta

Its been a long time since I did a post on a recipe outside Indian kitchen. Infact, while I checked my recipe list, I realised there has not been a single post on Pasta yet though I have posted the "base sauce" sometime back. So, to complete it, here is the recipe for homemade pasta, well ofcourse, with store bought sauce, cheese and pasta of your choice.

Pasta is very easy to make and can be a good choice of a complete meal when you have sudden guests or on one of those tired evenings when you want to spend less than 30 minutes in the kitchen.

Ingredients:

- 3 cups pasta
- 1 cup grated mozarella cheese or any cheese of your choice
- 1 cup tomato base sauce or store bought pasta sauce
- 1 cup white sauce (homemade or store bought)
- 2 tsp olive oil or any cooking oil
- Salt and Black Pepper to taste
- Mixed Italian herbs for seasoning

Prep time: 30 mins                       Bake time: 10 mins

Preparation:

- In a large pot bring enough water to boil. Add 1 tsp of oil and salt and add the 3 cups of pasta. Let the pasta boil for approximately 12 minutes.
- Meanwhile, prepare the basic tomato sauce if you are not using the store bought sauce.
- Drain the boiled pasta and pour some cold water on it to allow the pasta to be separate and not sticky.

- Smear 1 tsp of oil in a wide baking dish or melt just a little butter to coat the bottom of the dish.

- Spread 1/2 cup of tomato sauce on the bottom and top it with 1/2 cup of shredded cheese.

- Spread half of the boiled pasta on the cheese and cover it with 1/2 cup of white sauce.
- Now, layer the remaining pasta and top it with the rest of the tomato sauce followed by the white sauce and shredded cheese.

- Pre-heat oven to 300 deg F and bake for 10 minutes. If you do not have an oven, microwave for 5 minutes or until the cheese melts on top and begins to brown slightly.

- Serve hot sprinkled with some crushed black pepper and the Italian herbs!

Thirattupal or Milk Halwa with Ricotta Cheese & Apple

As you keep reading my blogs you will conclude that I have a sweet tooth and one that is too strong...:-)) I am crazy about sweets from childhood though I would say my craving for sweets has come down to a very large extent in the recent years! Thanks to consciousness about health and fitness.

But if someone places a plate of sweets in front of me and expects me to behave like a Sage....sorry...am not in for that game! Well, this time around no one gave me a platter of sweets but my fridge presented itself with all the leftovers I needed to satiate my cravings:-)

It had the left over ricotta cheese from my Lasagna evening, left over condensed milk from krishna jayanthi day, left over 3/4 of an apple...now that is not strange in our house! As I have mentioned in my earlier post on the Apple milkshake ....this is truly a forbidden fruit..;-) and ofcourse there was this exactly half stick of butter too....that was some coincidence! The outcome of all these leftovers was this supper yummy "thiratupal" or "milk halwa" which I would say is now hardly left over....

Now, this recipe I know is all over the net and I have made it myself a couple of times before but not with Apples! That was quite an idea! I simply wanted to use the left over apple and decided to grate it in and the result was this super yummy and perfectly coloured halwa! Ofcourse I made it in the microwave....

Ingredients:
(alter proportions as needed...below is all what I had & used up:-))

- 3/4 of 15oz pack Ricotta Cheese
- 1/3 of 14oz tin of sweetened condensed milk
- 1/2 stick of unsalted butter approx 4 tbsp
- 3/4 apple, skin peeled & grated
- 6 tbsp of sugar - powdered
- 2 tbsp milk, i used 1%

Prep time: 5 mins                     Cook time: 30 mins

- In a microwave safe  bowl, add the ricotta cheese, butter, grated apple and condensed milk.
- Warm the milk and pour it in the condensed milk tin. Milk is mainly to get all of the condensed milk from the tin:-)!

Apple changes to this caramel colour the instant you grate them

- Place it in the microwave and heat for 3 minutes. At the end of 3 minutes, remove the bowl, mix all ingredients together. Now, add the powdered sugar to this and mix well.

End of 1st 3 minutes of heating

- Place the bowl in the microwave and heat for a further 3 to 4 minutes. Keep checking so that the mix does not spill out.

At the end of 8 minutes

- Every 4 minutes, stop heating and stir up the bowl to ensure the sweet gets cooked evenly.

At the end of 15 minutes

- The sweet is ready once the ingredients come together and all the butter and milk gets absorbed well.
- It took me about 21 minutes to finish up! This time might vary depending on your microwave. So, pls use your judgement.

At the end of 21 minutes....Done!

- The addition of apples gives a very nice colour and flavour to this halwa. You could add some coarsely ground dates too for additional taste and colour!

This recipe is participating in ABC Series - A for Apple being hosted by Ramya..

Sending the recipe to Friday Potluck at Show and Tell by Vatsala