For long, I had been thinking of featuring recipes from the restaurants I love dining at. With this, let me steal some limelight and gladly introduce a new section on Thoughts Over Chai where you’ll find secrets (read:recipes) behind the chef’s kitchen that you can easily recreate to entertain guests or simply enjoy the food that you have loved eating away from home, now in the comfort of your PJs, soft cushions or your preciously bought exquisite cutlery while captivating visitors with your cooking skills. Hopefully, this should be getting more exciting in the future. Fingers crossed!
For the debut, what I want to start with today is the delicious Penne Rustica recipe from Romano’s Macaroni Grill which we always keep going back for. My family is a die-hard lover of all things “pasta” to the extent that we’d travel lengths and breadths of the city for a good plate of rustic home-cooked style pasta that softly screams “comfort”. And if you’d look around Dubai, there are many Italian joints offering them, also the ones at Food Courts in the malls (not my choice, really!) but we usually love to have ours only at selective restaurants or food joints. Romano’s Macaroni Grill being undoubtedly one of them. If you ask me why, there are a number of reasons to list down, however what strikes the chord is that Romano’s is always serving up a notch with a bit of a spark and fresh familiar flavors on the table everytime we are there. When I finally laid my hands on this recipe, the fan girl in me shrieked with excitement as the idea of replicating the recipe in my own kitchen for friends one evening was truly electrifying to say the least.
Penne Rustica isn’t very healthy. By that I mean it is very high on calories, so make sure you share this with everyone around you and not eat alone. Though it is that good – a kind of comfort food in it’s own way while you binge every single morsel off your plate! The recipe in itself is quite easy that can be cooked in a short time if you have all the ingredients available in a pantry or you shop for them a day before. Also, I did tweak the recipe a bit in the sense that Marsala wine in gratinata sauce got replaced simply with chicken stock since we don’t use alcohol in our food but if you have wine at home, you sure can use that and shrimps with chicken sausages. However, even with the substitutions Penne Rustica did turn out quite similar to what we have been eating at the restaurant for couple of years now. Pair the penne with crisp home-made bread and you are good to go!
Dig right in!
Romano's Penne Rustica
- Servings: 4
- Difficulty: Medium
Ingredients:
Gratinata Sauce:
- Butter – 2 tbsps
- Garlic – 2 tsp, finely chopped
- Dijon Mustard – 1 tsp
- Rosemary – 1 tsp, chopped
- Chicken Stock – 1 cup (can also use Marsala Wine)
- Paprika – 1/4 tsp
- Heavy Cream – 1 1/2 cup
Penne Rustica :
- Penne – 2 cups, cooked
- Chicken Sausage -
- Canola Oil – 2 tbsp
- Shallots – 1/4 cup, chopped
- Black Pepper – 1/4 tsp, freshly ground
- Paprika – 1/4 tsp (less if required)
- Roasted Peppers – 1/4 cup, julienned
- Mediterranean Herb Mix – 1/4 tsp
- Parmesan Cheese – 1/2 cup
- Salt to taste
Method :
For Gratinata Sauce – In a pan over medium heat, saute butter, garlic and rosemary for a few seconds but don’t burn the garlic. Carefully pour in chicken stock and cook for 5 minutes. Add in cream, dijon mustard and paprika. Reduce the stock to half, stirring continuously. Switch off the gas and keep aside.
For Penne Rustica – In a large wok, add oil and shallots and saute for 30 seconds over medium high. Add in sausages, salt, paprika and freshly ground pepper. Saute till chicken turns golden brown but not over cooked. Stir in prepared gratinata sauce and 1/4 cup parmesan and cook for few minutes. Mix in cooked pasta and combine with the chicken-gratinata sauce mixture. Place all the content in a large baking dish. Top with remaining parmesan, paprika, roasted peppers and herb mix. Bake in the oven at 200 Degrees C for 10-15 mins or until the cheese starts to turn golden brown. Sprinkle with more herb mix and serve.
- The Dubai Mall
- Mirdif City Centre
- Deerfields Townsquare, Abu Dhabi
- Dalma Mall, Abu Dhabi
- World Trade Center, Abu Dhabi
