White Chicken Embutido Pasta

"It's almost midnight and I was craving for pasta but I just wasn't in the mood to order food online. So..."

I just rummaged my fridge and cupboards for anything that I could use to whip an easy pasta. And I found the following:

• 1 long chicken embutido

• 1 cup of cream

• 2 cups of pasta shells

• 1 bar of cheddar cheese, cubed

To put them together, I used the following cooking essentials:

• 1 medium sized onion

• 2 cloves of garlic

• 1 tablespoon of olive oil

• water

• salt, pepper, and chili powder to taste

Right after coming up with the idea of the pasta that I wanted to cook given the ingredients that I had, I set the stove to high heat and put a pot of water to boil with 2 tablespoons of salt. When the water was already boiling, I dropped the pasta shells and cooked them for 3 minutes. When my alarm rang, I transferred the shells in a bowl with five tablespoons of pasta water.

For the sauce, I sautéed the onion and garlic. When I saw that they already achieved my desired color, I dropped the chicken embutido that I sliced into quartered coins. After a minute, I put salt, pepper, and chili powder. After which, I added the cream and let the mixture simmered for 2 minutes.

To easily serve the pasta, I just added the shells into the pot of sauce with the cubed cheddar cheese. And there, I was able to whip a white pasta in less than 30 minutes.

#BetterTasteTip: It tastes the best 20 minutes after cooking.

Lazy One-Pot Pinoy Pasta

"Too lazy to cook that full course dinner? Too lazy to go to the supermarket to buy the ingredients for that red pasta dish that you've been craving for? Or maybe you have few of the ingredients to cook that pasta? Well my friend, you are up for a delicious and hearty dinner."

For tonight's pasta, you would only need few ingredients to cook it. From watching a lot of videos about saving and cooking tips, I've learned that it is so much easier (if going to the market is an issue, which for me is often times an issue: just too lazy for the commute and generally too impatient to spend my weekend hours waiting in line to pay for my groceries) to pantry-shop or to check for any available ingredients in your own pantry and cook something out of them. Clever idea, right? I thought so.

So, I found the following ingredients in my pantry and fridge:

• 1 bag of shell pasta (not really going to use the whole bag, unless I have friends coming over)

• approximately 6 tablespoonfuls of sautéed ground beef

• 2 pieces of red longganisa

• 1 pack of tomato paste

• 1/2 bar of cheddar cheese

• several pieces of ripe tomatoes

Also in this recipe, I used (or sometimes your choice if you want to include them) the following:

• 1.5 cup of water

• 1 large chopped onion

• 2 cloves of garlic

• 1 teaspoonful of olive oil

• black pepper, chili powder, and salt to taste

In a pot, sauté the onion and garlic. Once your desired color of the onion and garlic has been achieved, add the ground beef and longganisa (remove the skin). Make sure that the meat is not clumpy. Any of the two, ground beef or longganisa, will do but if you want to stick with the Pinoy theme, longganisa is the perfect choice. In my pasta, I just included the ground beef since I wanted to use it already and didn't want to see it anymore in my fridge.

Once the longganisa started caramelizing, I added the sliced tomatoes, 1 tablespoonful of tomato paste, a cup of shell pasta, and water. I cooked the mixture on high heat until I saw bubbles popping on the surface.

I added black pepper, chili powder, and salt to taste. Also, you may add whatever amount of cheese you want in your pasta. I stirred the mixture occasionally until the sauce achieved my desired thickness.

#BetterTasteTip: Three days is the maximum length of time this pasta will be able to keep its taste if you'll be keeping the extra servings in the fridge.