Pasta with pea puree, mix veggies and lountza (you can use bacon)

I have to admit that I really neglected this blog. I am way worst than you Mon :)

One of my new years resolution is to cook more and to remember to take photos while I cook :P yeah !! thats a must dont you think? :).

Anyway I hope that I will be more efficient with my cooking this year.
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I want to to wish you all to have an amazing 2012!


Pasta with pea puree, mix veggies and lountza

Serves 2
For the pea puree

*half cup peas
*mint
*1 spoon butter

for the veggies and lountza.

*half a leek
*1 onion
*1 green pepper
*5-6 pieces of lountza (cypriot product, you can use bacon)
*4-5 spoons of white wine
*1 clove of garlic
*pepper only cause lountza is too salty to add salt, if you add bacon then add a bit of salt also.

For the pasta.

You cook the pasta as indicated at the box.

For the sauce

You add the peas in a pan with water and the mint. You wait for them to get cooked and then you add the butter and smash them with the mixer.

For the veggies and lountza.

You add the lountza in the pan until its cooked and then you add the rest of the veggies, the leek, the onion, the green pepper and stir until they feel soft. Then reduce with white wine and add the garlic and pepper. Stir for 2-3 minutes and then add the pea puree and stir. Your sauce is ready to serve. If you want you can add some nuts on top.

Bon Apetit!

Mary



Spaghettoni with Lountza or Bacon and Green Peppers

I wanted to do something with pasta for the weekend so I prepared two recipes for you. This is the first one, which I attempted to create something without thinking too much. I just wanted to go with the flow while tasting it in the process.

So here you are:

Ingredients:

Serves 4

Spaghettoni or any other Pasta you prefer
1 pack of Lountza* or Bacon
1 big Green Pepper or 2 small ones chopped
1 big tomato or 2 small ones chopped
1 garlic chopped finely
pinch of chilli
oil
pinch of salt only for the milder version of Lountza
pinch of pepper
pinch of sugar

*Lountza (Italian Lonza) is made from the pork tenderloin. After the initial brining and marinading in wine, it is smoked. Although it can be aged, many prefer younger, milder lountza. It is often cooked over coals or fried with eggs as well as a sandwich filler or part of a meze. Stronger than lountza and made from the leg, is chiromeri, which is similar to any smoked, air-dried ham from Southern Europe, although the wine flavour makes it characteristically Cypriot. In non-mountain areas, the same meat used for chiromeri is cut into strips along the muscle compartments and dried in the sun as basta.

For this recipe I wanted to use aged smoked Lountza or Chiromeri, it is much better because it's really salty, but that's my preference, others prefer to use the milder version of it. For this case though i didn't have the aged version, so I used a milder one.



Method

You cook the Pasta as indicated.

For the Sauce, first you have to put the Lountza in the pan with no oil and stir until it becomes really hard. For the milder version, stir until golden brown.

Add the tomatoes and green peppers and a bit of sugar and oil just to enhance the taste of the tomatoes.
Stir for 5 minutes and then add the rest of the ingredients.

When the sauce starts to become thick then its ready.







Enjoy!!
Mary
Cyprus
xxx