Call me crazy but I do not like going to work. Unless you are one of the lucky peeps who love what they do (only if consuming big amounts of chocolate was a job...eyy?), then that feeling will not apply to you, and you will more likely be the one to say 'if you don't enjoy it, don't do it!
You must love what you do!', long story short, I do not love my day job, but it pays the bills, and I've recently started this blog, because I love doing it. And as wise people say, we do not know what the future holds. Which brings me to my next point...
I used to work with many Mexican, Brazilian, Portuguese and Spanish people. And I loved (and still do love) everything about them! The language, the culture, the food, even the swearwords sound so much more exciting in their language! Ever since I can remember, I've always been fascinated by their cultures, and I always had a 'thing' for anything related. Can't explain why, possibly something related to the past life...who knows! The fascination is real and so is the food cooked by them! Who knew back then, when we were all living together in the tiny pub in English countryside, that one day, I will be writing about it on my own food blog!?! How crazy is that!?! How little we all knew back then about what the future planned for us...
Anyway, let's get back to food, and this Spicy Mexican Pasta Bowl, because you know, priorities. Back in a pub days, one of my friends, Antonio, who now lives happily in Portugal, and spends most of his days fishing (which I do not approve on) and eating pasta dishes like this, used to cook this for everyone who was lucky enough to live with us in this tiny pub.
The thing that amazed me the most about his way of preparing it, was that the pasta gets fried before it is cooked. Not for long, just enough to give it lovely brown color, and that nutty, toasted aroma. In addition to that, he will use the most beautiful chipotle chilli, that will infuse the whole dish with that smoky flavor... In return for his efforts in the kitchen, we will make sure he gets rewarded with pint or two (or seven) of lager. It was pretty good deal if you ask me...He claimed the origins of this dish were from Mexico, so I'm going with it.
Since sharing the recipe for Creamy Carbonara I've been living on pasta. Mainly because I've been experimenting with different types of pasta and sauces, but also because you can never have too much pasta in your life. And, let's be honest here, pasta is easy to make, and due to feeling extremely lazy in the last few weeks (or years...), it's a perfect choice for dinner for me, and I'm sure you will also become a converter too! So here we are my friend, another pasta recipe! Yaaayy or what? I couldn't get hold of any of these lovely chipotle chilli, so as a result, I did improvise a bit here with mixed peppers and smoked paprika powder. It was just as good, dare I say even better than the original!
So go ahead, and have a little pasta fiesta!
Spicy Mexican Pasta Bowl
Ingredients
- 2 cups of wholewheat pasta of your choice I've used mafalda
- 1 cup cannellini beans cooked
- 1 cup mixed peppers
- 2 bird eye chillies deseeded and finely chopped
- 1 cup of closed cup mushrooms sliced
- 3 cups chopped tomatoes (peeled)
- 2 cloves garlic (minced)
- 1 medium onion (chopped)
- 2 tablespoon tomato puree
- 2 tablespoon vegetable oil
- handful of fresh parsley
- 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
- salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- Place tomatoes and garlic in a medium saucepan and cover with water, bring to simmer over low heat, simmer until tomatoes are soft, about 10 minutes.
- Let it cool slightly and transfer tomatoes and garlic into a blender, add salt and pepper to taste and blend until smooth puree texture.
- Heat the oil in a large pan, add the pasta and saute for about 2 minutes until it's nicely brown and smells toasted, but keep stirring constantly so it doesn't burn.
- Stir in the tomato puree, cook for about 5 minutes.
- Add rest of the ingredients and cook until pasta is tender, stirring occasionally, should be about 10- 12 minutes.
- Sprinkle with fresh, chopped parsley.
- Enjoy!
Please note that all my recipes are developed and tested in metric grams. I recommend that you use digital scales for a more accurate results. I have provided a conversion to US customary in the recipe but please note that I haven’t tested using this method.
Nutrition
A frankfurter
Looks smashing, does it smell good though?
annabanana
Hah! Yes, smells just as good as it looks! OMA 😉