This Masala Penne Pasta is the first recipe I tried from my new cookbook An Affair with Indian Cooking and all I can say is that the recipe is super easy, the pasta is simply amazing, and this is definitely going to be one of my new "go to" pasta dishes. I agree with Geeta, author and family friend, who describes this recipe as an "Indian twist to the Italian baked Ziti."
During my mom's last visit to Boston my sister and I learned how to make a few basic vegetarian dishes and this Indian dish was the first one we started with. I made this dish Sunday evening and served it with whole wheat naan and yogurt. And yesterday for lunch I put the leftovers in a sandwich with a little butter and shredded cheese and it was delicious.
We eat homemade pizza and Indian food weekly so I thought I would merge the two cuisines and make an "east meets west" pizza. Since we don't really eat chicken I used salmon and the tikka masala pizza turned out crispy, slightly spicy, and full of flavor.
Green chutney is one of the most popular Indian accompaniments and it has a taste that is spicy, tangy, and slightly sweet. It is typically served with appetizers such as samosas and kebabs, but it can also be used as a sandwich spread or as as a sauce for fish. There are many variations of green chutney but this one is my favorite because it's my mom's recipe.
I have tried many recipes for banana bread but this one tops the list and it is simply amazing. The banana bread is moist, not too sweet, and perfect to eat for breakfast or as a late night snack.
Whenever we travel to Vancouver one of our first stops is Vij's restaurant. And ever since we got Vij's cookbook, Aneesh and I have enjoyed experimenting with recipes on our "cooking date nights." These date nights typically consist of trying a new recipe from Vij's, listening to the best of the 80's on Pandora, and opening up a really nice bottle of a Pax syrah. This past Sunday Aneesh made green onion and coconut chickpea curry, by far one of the easiest recipes in the book. Ariyana enjoyed this so much she requested leftovers to take to preschool the next day.