Fettuccine! Fettuccine! Viva Fettuccine! Hihihi!

FETTUCCINE is an Italian term for little ribbons and a kind of pasta, commonly known in Roman Cuisine. In short, it is a very popular in pasta dishin the Italian city of Rome. Fettuccine is made from egg and flour, just like any other pastas like spaghetti noodles, ziti and macaroni. It can be easily distinguished with its flat thick noodles. The most popular fettuccine recipe is Fettuccini Alfredo. It is a fettuccine tossed with butter and parmesan cheese.

Cooking CREAMY CHICKEN AND HAM FETTUCCINE seems complicated with its countless steps, but when you already started cooking the pasta and the sauce, it just as simple as cooking any other PASTA DISH. It is creamy with its all-purpose cream and cream of chicken. Chicken bits and ham adds flavor and wonder in this delightful pasta dish. You may also replace or add ingredients like shrimp, meatballs or vegetable like broccoli.

Try these pasta recipes like BAKED ZITI and TUNA CARBONARA.

CREAMY CHICKEN AND HAM FETTUCCINE

1 kilo fettuccini
1/2 cup butter
4 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
1/2 kilo chicken fillet, sliced into chunks
1/4 kilo ham, sliced
1 pouch Nestle all-purpose cream
1 can Cream of Chicken
1/2 cup parmesan cheese or grated cheese
ground black pepper
salt

Cook fettuccine according to its cooking directions, usually printed at the back. Drain once al dente and set aside.

In a large pan, brown chicken and ham with 1 tbsp. butter, about 5-8 minutes or until chicken chunks are cooked through. Season with salt and pepper. Add minced garlic, cook for about 2-3 minutes or until aromatic.

Add Nestle all-pupose cream and Cream of Chicken, cook on a low heat, about 10-15 minutes, stirring constantly.

Then add cheese, one tablespoon at a time, stirring constantly, until sauce is thick. You may add a little water if too thick. Season with salt and pepper.

Finally, serve over cooked fettuccine pasta. Or you can pour sauce over pasta, place in a baking dish and bake for 20 minutes.

I have an extra pack of ZITI PASTA in my shelf after making my BAKED ZITI. With the love I have for pasta, I cannot resist myself cooking them again. I am always pleased with the different recipes I make with my pasta. CHEESY ZITI is a perfect simple family pasta snack and is a fast comfort pasta dish. Cooking Cheesy Ziti requires only about 5 minutes to prepare and 20-30 minutes to be cooked. And for sure, this will only take few minutes to be consumed.

If you can’t have enough of CHEESY ZITI, why not try TUNA CARBONARA, BAKED MACARONI or SARDINES PASTA.

CHEESY ZITI

500 grams ziti pasta
1 tbsp. butter
1 onion, peeled and minced
1 cup cooked ham, thinly sliced
3 cups spaghetti sauce
1/2 cup tomato sauce
1/2 cup sour cream
1 1/2 cup cheese
italian seasoning
dried oregano and basil
salt
pepper
sugar

Bring a large pot of salted water to boil and add ziti. Cook until al dente. Drain, put in a large bowl and set aside.

In a large skillet, melt butter over low heat. Add onion and ham, cook for about 2 minutes. Add spaghetti sauce, tomato sauce, sour cream and cheese, stirring once in a while, cook for 10-12 minutes.

Season with italian seasoning, dried oregano, dried basil, salt, pepper and sugar.

Cook for another 2-3 minutes. Remove from heat.

On a separate large skillet, pour half of the sauce, then add half of the cooked pasta ziti, over low heat, tossing constantly. Then add the remaining sauce and pasta. Cook for about 5 minutes until pasta and sauce are well-mixed. Remove from fire.

Then serve your CHEESY ZITI while hot. You may also top them with grated cheddar cheese or parmesan cheese.

I met BAKED ZITI when I was in college. It was when a friend invited me to dine at Sbarro. It was also the very moment I fell in love with Italian Pasta. Every bud on my tongue found the sour tomatoes, pungent onion and overpowering flavor of basil and hundreds of herbs irresistable.

Ziti is a 2 inch long tube pasta and is like a traditional macaroni pasta which most Filipinos use. The name ZITI means fiancee and is traditionally served at weddings in Italy. Cooking Baked Ziti is not so famous in the country but good thing Pinoys are now welcoming new tastes and flavors of other cultures’ dishes.

BAKED ZITI

1 kilo ziti pasta
for pasta sauce:
3 tbsp. cooking oil
3 large white onions, minced
1/2 kilo lean ground beef
1/2 kilo ham, sliced
1 kilo spaghetti sauce
1/4 cup tomato paste, dissolved in 1 cup water
1/2 cup cream cheese
1 tsp. Italian seasoning
1 cup water
salt
pepper

for cream cheese:
2 tbsp. butter
1 cup milk
1/2 cup cream cheese
1 cup cheddar cheese, grated

To prepare the Ziti noodles: 

Heat a large pot of 3 liters water. Bring to full simmer. Add 2 tablespoon of salt. Add pasta and boil, uncovered, stirring occasionally, until pasta is cooked and firm. Drain the cooked pasta with a colander. wash with running water until pasta is not so warm so as to keep the pasta separated from one another and to reduce the heat to prevent them be starchy. Then, set aside.

NOTE: Do not add oil just what most Pinoys use to do when cooking pasta. Adding oil will let your sauce slip of the pasta, instead of letting the pasta absorb the sauce, leaving it flavorless pasta.

To prepare ziti sauce:

Brown onion and ground beef in oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add sliced ham. Cook for about 5 minutes, or until sides of ham turned light brown.

Add spaghetti sauce, 1 cup water. Bring to slow simmer for 10-15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Then add the dissolved tomato paste, stir constantly so that the tomato paste will blend with the sauce. Add salt, pepper and Italian seasoning.

In a large bowl, put about 2 cups of the sauce and dissolve the cream cheese. After mixing the sauce and cream cheese, transfer the mixture to the pan and stir constantly. Cook for 5 more minutes or until sauce is well-blended with the cheese.

To prepare cream cheese:

In a small pan, put milk, butter, cream cheese and cheddar cheese and bring to slow boil over low heat. Stir constantly until cream cheese and cheddar cheese melt.

To bake the pasta:

Preheat oven to 350 F degrees. Spread a thin layer of butter in your baking dish. Put a small amount of sauce on your baking dish. Set aside.

Reserve a half cup of pasta sauce.

On a very large bowl, put cooked ziti and pasta sauce. Mix well so sauce will cover all pasta.

Transfer the pasta on your baking dish. Top with reserved pasta sauce and cream cheese.

Bake for about 20 minutes.

Serve while hot.

My father-in-law who is a native of Northern Mindanao introduced me to PANSIT BAM-I or PANSIT CANTON-SOTANGHON GUISADO. I know the recipe and the dish itself is not new to most Filipinos but the term Bam-i is somehow new to me and to some. Pansit Bam-i is a chinese noodle combination of pansit canton (egg nodles) and pansit sotanghon (bean thread or vermicelli) and is a very popular dish in parts of Visayas and Mindanao. There are wide varieties of home-cooked pansit recipe like Pansit Sotanghon, Pansit Canton, Pansit Bihon, Pansit Misua and many more.

PANSIT BAM-I (CANTON-SOTANGHON GUISADO)

200 grams pansit sotanghon (vermicelli)
200 grams pansit canton
cooking oil
2 cloves garlic, peeled and crushed
1 medium onion, peeled and sliced
200 grams pork belly, boiled and sliced into bite sizes
1 small cabbage, cut into thin, ribbon like shreds
3 cups water
3 tbsp. soy sauce
salt
pepper

Soak sotanghon with water, about 10 minutes, set aside.

In a large skillet, heat oil. Saute garlic and onion until aromatic. Add sliced pork. Cook until pork cubes turned light brown. Add cabbage and soy sauce. Blend well with pork, constantly stirring. Add water. Bring to boil, stirring often, about 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Add canton and sotanghon noodles. Cook, tossing constantly until noodles absorbed the water. Transfer on a serving plate or large shallow bowl.

Serve while hot with sliced bread or pandesal!

MISUA is a very thin flour noodles originated from China. Misua is a lot different with Bihon and Sotanghon which made from rice and mung beans. I always use misua everytime I ran out of time and idea on what to pair with a fried dish. It would only take me about 3 minutes cooking Misua in a boiling water. Misua can be cooked with beef, pork, egg, and chicken. You can also add some vegetables like sayote and patola for a healthy dish in just one bowl .

MISUA WITH SARDINES

2 tbsp cooking oil
200 grams misua
1 large can mackarel sardines
1 medium onion, peeled and sliced
2 cloves garlic, peele and crushed
1 liter water
salt
pepper

So that the garlic begins to infuse the oil even before it starts to cook, put the garlic and the oil in a large non-stick skillet, then set the skillet over very low heat. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the garlic softens. Add onions, cook until aromatic, about 5 minutes.

Pour the mackarel sardines. Saute over medium-high heat, stirring constantly and cutting the fish into pieces with large spoon, about 5 minutes.

Add water, bring to full boil.

Add misua, cook about 5 minutes, stirring constantly.

Season with salt and pepper. Serve with rice while steaming hot.

SOPAS or MACARONI SOUP is one of the many popular breakfast soup dishes in the Philippines. I even already featured a macaroni soup recipe using CHICKEN but this time, I will be using ground lean beef in a creamy macaroni soup for a bowl packed with benefits of protein. Oh well, we all grew up loving Sopas cooked in many different ways, changed in many variations and added with different spices and vegetables. So I am very sure all will love this beefy version of macaroni soup.

BEEF SOPAS

2 tbsp. butter
250 grams ground lean beef
250 grams uncooked elbow macaroni
3 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
1 large onion, peeled and chopped
1 medium carrot, peeled and chopped
1 liter water
1 small can of evaporated milk
salt
pepper

In a large saucepan, melt butter. Saute garlic and onion. Add ground beef until meat starts to brown. Add water, then bring to full boil. Add elbow macaroni. Cook covered until macaroni is al dente, about 15-20 minutes, stirring frequently. Add carrots. Season with salt and pepper according to taste. Pour in the milk. Then, serve while hot.

Our friends gathered in our home last weekend. Though it was just a short notice that they will be coming, I did my quick grocery and fast cooking. And since I wanted to show some of my culinary skills despite of time constraints, I cooked a TUNA CARBONARA that they surely wouldn’t forget. Having no househelp calls for sorely kitchen chore but my stress instantly disappeared when I saw the spark in their eyes as I placed the TUNA CARBONARA on our table and absolutely satisfied since there was no leftover.

TUNA CARBONARA is a quite-demanding and challenging pasta dish because we do not want to have our pasta tastes and smells too fishy. One trick I learned from a friend is to use a canned and seasoned tuna, like Hot and Spicy Century Tuna. I added more color in the pasta by complementing colors of vegetables like carrots, red and green peppers, and celery. The vegetables also contributed a very pleasant smell and taste to the sauce.

Well, I guess I learned that I should be planning for some simple dishes for unplanned cooking for unexpected visitors. Making sure that ingredients are in the kitchen so I can still please my guests with my home-cooked dishes.

TUNA CARBONARA (TUNA IN WHITE SAUCE)

1 kilo pasta (spaghetti, fettucini, cooked accdg. to packaging directions)

1/3 cup butter
1 large head garlic (the whole thing; not the clove), peeled and minced
3 medium white onions, peeled and finely chopped
1 can (420 gm) Century Tuna Flakes in Vegetable Oil, drained
1 can (420 gm) Century Tuna Flakes, Hot and Spicy, drained
1 can Campbell’s Cream of Mushroom
1 pouch Nestle Cream (I used lite cream)
1 cup evaporated milk
1 cup button mushrooms (canned), sliced
1 medium carrots, peeled and finely chopped
1 medium red bell pepper, cored, seeded and finely chopped
1 medium green bell pepper, cored, seeded and finely chopped
1 stalk, celery, finely chopped
1 tsp. dried oregano
1 tsp. dried basil
1 tbsp. ground black pepper
1 tsp. salt

Heat a large skillet over medium heat. Melt the butter.

Add garlic, saute for about a minute and add onion, saute for another minute.

Add the tuna flakes, make sure they are drained well. Saute for 5 minutes, stirring often with care.

Add Nestle Cream.

Then, add the evaporated milk.

Pour on Campbell’s Cream of Mushroom.

Add sliced mushroom. Reduce heat to low. Stirring constantly to avoid the ingredients sticking on the pan’s bottom. Scrap up also the browned bits on the side of the pan. Cook for about 10 minutes. Simmering the sauce slowly.

Add carrots, red and green bell peppers. Cook for about 2 minutes.

Add celery. And season with dried oregano, basil, black pepper and salt. Cook for another minute. Remove from fire.

Pour the sauce over still-warm cooked pasta.

Serve your TUNA CARBONARA.

Noodles are found in every region, in every country and in every continent. Asia has a long history for noodles. And most noodle dishes flee to its national origins. Evidently, every home including Filipino homes has its own technique and taste for cooking noodles. Yet since I was a kid, these noodles, thin, thick, white, yellow, fresh, dried, are introduced by the Chinese. No wonder they are famously called Chinese Noodles.

There is no mistake in cooking Chinese noodles as long as the noodles are cooked firm and perfect. Any topping and method will make the dish good. So I cooked a VERY VEGGY EGG NOODLES (Pancit Canton), a thick dried egg noodles with lots of vegetables for an all-in-one-dish.

VERY VEGGY EGG NOODLES (Pancit Canton)

1/4 cup cooking oil
2 garlic cloves, peeled and minced
3 onion heads, peeled and quartered
1/4 kilo porkloin, sliced into 1/2″
1 kilo pancit canton
1/2 cup soy sauce
1 tsp. brown sugar
1 tsp. fish sauce (patis)
2 cups pork broth
1 cup carrots, peeled and thinly sliced
1 cup Baguio bean, cut into 1 inch long
1 1/2 cup cabbage, sliced into pieces
salt
ground pepper

Boil in sliced porkloin with 3 cups of water into a saucepan until cooked and tender. Separate broth and porkloin. Set aside.

Heat a large nonstick wok over medium-high heat. Swirl in the cooking oil, then add the porkloin, garlic and onion. Stir-fry until the porkloin turns golden brown, about 1 minute.

Stir in the 2 cups broth, soy sauce, sugar, and black pepper. Bring to a simmer.

Add the carrots, Baguio beans and cabbage. Simmer and cook for about 5 minutes.

Add the Pancit Canton noodles. Raise the heat to high and toss constantly until the noodles absorb much of the sauce.

Remove from the heat and serve.

It rained for the past 2 nights and I am thankful the rain somehow helped lessen the warm temperature which was 38 degress Celcius yesterday, the hottest day of the year. Some provinces here in the Philippines like Isabela already reached 40 degrees, whew, that is hot hot hot. I do not know if I am to be happy the summer is about to end because I really do not like rain. I had terribly stressed with the rain last year during the typhoon Pepeng. But I know we can push along whatever climate conditions it may be. Anyway, the morning is a bit colder and is telling me that it is about time to cook a warm and creamy SOPAS or CREAMY CHICKEN MACARONI SOUP.

CREAMY CHICKEN MACARONI SOUP is commonly known as SOPAS and is Filipino favorite soup dish for breakfast or merienda. It is an all-in one meal in a bowl. Macaroni pasta for your carbs, chicken chunks for protein, carrots and red bell as your veggies and milk as creamer for your vitamins and minerals.

SOPAS or CREAMY CHICKEN MACARONI SOUP

3 tbsp. cooking oil
2 heads garlic, peeled and minced
2 medium onions, peeled and finely chopped
½ kilo chicken breast, finely chopped
½ kilo elbow macaroni (or any pasta will do)
2 liters of water
1 large carrot, peeled and finely chopped
3 medium red bell pepper, unseeded and finely chopped
1 small can evaporated milk
3 tbsp. Knorr Cream of Chicken Soup
2 Knorr Chicken Cubes
salt and pepper

Heat a large soup pot over low heat. Swirl in the cooking oil then add garlic and onion. Cook slowly, stirring often about 4 minutes.

Add the chopped chicken. Raise the heat to medium-high. Stir constantly until chicken turned white.

Add water. Bring to a full boil.

Add elbow macaroni. Raise the heat to high, stirring often until macaroni is cooked.

Add cream of chicken soup, chicken cubes, carrots, red bell peppers and evaporated milk.

Season with salt and pepper. Cook for a couple of minutes and serve your Creamy Chicken Macaroni Soup while hot.

Our son, Zachary Caleb, turns one month today! I know that to some it is not considered a major highlight, but for me, being his mother, today is a cherished and thanksgiving day. I am grateful for the happiness and joy he is giving to me each day despite of the sleepless nights and scaring me of his fragility. I know it will be a wonderful countdown to his 1st birthday as we will watch him grow and learn things with us. As a mom, it is one of the greatest blessings I have and I will not trade my sons for anything in this world.

Along with Caleb’s small celebration, www.hungrynez.com is also celebrating its first anniversary! Yeah, my food blog turns one-year old this month, which made me realize that time really flies so fast. I have learned so many things, from cooking, baking, shopping and blogging. I enjoy every time I post a recipe as much as I enjoy and have fun cooking and learning things from other food bloggers. I am grateful for my friends, Mark, Kris, Chrissy and Chit for sharing their knowledge on blogging and inspiring me to do better with my blog. I know, I still owe you guys pizza. And before I forget, I thank my readers who regular visit my blog.

So to celebrate a little, I cooked Pancit or Pansit Bihon Guisado (Rice Sticks Noodles with Vegetables) this morning for our merienda and some I sent to my officemates. As a Filipino tradition, a grand feast or a simple celebration will never be complete without a Pansit on the table. Pansit is commonly prepared during birthdays, as it symbolizes long life and good health. As a trace of Chinese influence in our country, Pansit can be claimed as a Pinoy food as Filipinos created different variation of Pansit like Pansit Luglog, Pansit Malabon, Pansit con Sabaw, and many more.

Pansit or Pancit Bihon Guisado (Rice Sticks Noodles with Vegetables)

1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/2 kilo chicken breast
1/2 kilo porkloin
3 heads garlic, peeled and minced
3 medium onion, peeled and sliced
1/2 cup soy sauce
2 liters of water
1 kilo pansit bihon
2 tbsp. black pepper
1 medium cabbage, thinly sliced
1 medium carrot, peeled and thinly sliced
salt

Boil chicken breast and porkloin in a 500 ml of water. Season with salt. Cook until tender.

Separate chicken breast and porkloin and stock. Save stock.

Slice chicken breast and porkloin to about 1 inch size. Set aside.

On a large wok or skillet, heat cooking oil. Saute garlic and onion.

Add sliced chicken and porkloin.

Add sliced cabbage and carrots.

Add soy sauce until it covers the meat and veggies.

Add water and meat stock.

Bring to boil.

When veggies and meat are already cooked, separate them from the boiling water.

Add rice stick noodles or pansit bihon.

Cook, tossing constantly until noodles absorb the water.

Place cooked Pansit Bihon on a big platter and top it with the veggies and meat you set aside earlier.

Serve with ice cold softdrink.