Wednesday, October 20, 2010

In your face Marco Polo!

It is hard enough to explain the concept of aging and death to a child that understand how things work. It is even harder to explain all of that to a six years old child, particularly if it's a girl, as girls are "supposed" to play dollhouse, mothers, nurses and not watch mini series about the travels and adventures of Marco Polo in the distant year of 1982.
Well, at that time, I had set my mind to get married to Marco Polo, eat all the tasty spaghetti that he brought over from China and possibly turn into complete nomads with few little Marco juniors or Martina juniors in tow.
However, he should have looked as young as I knew him from the mini series by the time I got old enough to marry him.

Fast forward about quarter of a century, here I am, not married to Marco Polo, but still eating the spaghetti and other forms of pasta which have evolved over time. Now did the pasta making evolve, that is completely different thing to debate and it won't be here and now.
There I am yesterday, all sleepy and zombifyied (yeah,it is my word, get over it) flipping through pages of ads that I have to analyze and write up the analysis, when all of a sudden I saw that it is 6:45pm and started panicking, at the verge of throwing a hissy fit.
It was not an advert that put me to the panic, but the time. You see, in 'normal' world 6:45pm is nothing to be panicking about, but on the rock I'm calling home means that the shop will close in exactly 12 minutes.
It's now or never! Grabbed the first semi-decent top and flew away of the door to scavenge some raw ingredients and make dinner.
I found some mushrooms that have seen better days (fresh veg day is Monday,NOT Tuesday), piece of pork that was so sad, I could practically see the piggy crying, and the mood struck me for twisted macaroni which were available at the veggie shop.
Armed with my 'prizes', I came home and new sauce was born!
After I made the sauce, I let it stay in the pan and set out to cook my twisted macaroni. The water boiled, I threw the macaroni in, cooked them for 10 minutes (al dente as instructed on the packet), took a photo to put it in the blog and ready to dig in!
First bite went down, oooh, bliss, it was the sauce! And then a forkful of macaroni. Ewww...tasteless and not al dente!
I thought hard and harder where I went wrong, and then had the moment of 'a-ha!'
I checked the packet for ingredients, production and other particulars and on the very bottom was written with teeny weeny letters "Made in Turkey"!
In your face Marco Polo! EVERYONE can make pasta! (But how it tastes, it is completely and utterly different story).
So, here is my recipe for the sauce from which you can add or subtract ingredients at your own convenience, but please, do read where the pasta is made!

Ingredients for 2 persons:

150 grams macaroni
150 grams mushrooms, sliced
100 grams pork fillet, cubed
2 medium tomatoes, peeled and cubed
1 medium onion, chopped
1 teaspoon sweet paprika
2 tablespoons olive oil
salt and freshly grounded pepper to taste

Method:

Fry the chopped onion on the oil, stirring constantly so it won't change the color. After the onion is softened, add the cubed pork and fry until browned all over. Put the sliced mushrooms and stir constantly until the water has evaporated. Add the cubed tomatoes and paprika, give it a stir and season with salt and pepper. Cover and set aside.
Boil the pasta according to packet instructions, drain, put in your plates, put some sauce over it and enjoy!

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