Fish-and-vegetable pasta, baked in foil
( Penne al cartoccio )

Recipe for penne with fish and vegetable sauce, baked in foil

Preparation and cooking

• - Thaw frozen ingredients.
  This step is necessary only if you use frozen flying squids and shrimps.
• - Prepare pasta sauce.
  Pour olive oil in a non-stick-frying pan and add, bay leaf, leeks and courgettes.
  Fry them slighly on low heat, stirring continuously, a few minutes.
  Then add cherry tomatoes with their preservation juice, wine and flying squid rings.
  Cook over medium heat, half-covered, until flying squids are tender, about 40 minutes.
  At this point add peas.
  Let all ingredients flavor.
  Turn off the stove.
  At this point add shrimps, surimi, basil chopped with your hands and other herbs.
  Stir with delicacy.
  Taste to determine how much salt your pasta sauce needs.
• - Cook penne pasta.
  Meanwhile cook pasta according to the instructions on the package until al dente stage.
  Drain pasta and combine with sauce.
  Stir very well.
• - The last step.
  Preheat oven to 220°C (425°F).
  Lay four sheets of aluminium foil out on the kitchen table and divide dressed pasta on them.
  Close up your parcels well and bake, 10 minutes.

Just before serving

• - Serve this pasta hot still enclosed in its parcel on individual plates.

Note

Tips

• - It's a very tasty one-plate meal. You can realise it all year with fresh or frozen ingredients.
• - This pasta dish is much tastier if fresh chives and flat-leaf parsley are available.

Menu planning

• - Serve baked pasta as one-plate meal in your family menu.
• - You can also serve baked pasta in a complete menu but remember in this case these doses are enough for more people (at least 6 serving).
  Here's a simple, cheap fish menu, Italian-style. Links to suggested recipes below!
  Starter: mini bruschettas to accompany the same wine you've decided to match to your menu.
  First course: this penne dish
  Second course is dedicated to sardines that is a baked dish from Sardinia.
  Dessert: I suggest a fruit tart with seasonal fruit. In our index dedicated to cakes and desserts you'll be able to find easily your favorite cake.

Useful links to this recipe

• - Consult our directory dedicated to Italian antipasto to look for bruschetta ideas.
• - That's the link to baked sardines, Sardinia-style. If you do not like sardines or do not find them, you can find a lot of other recipes with sea fish. It's enough to look at navigation bar on the top of the page!
• - Finally, the index for Italian cake recipes.

Healthy eating

• - Obviously this dish, rich in ingredients, is a perfect one-plate meal if chosen for your daily menus. Complete your meal with fresh fruit but if you are still hungry you can also add raw vegetables such as bell peppers, carrots ...). Another idea according to the Mediterranean diet instead of raw vegetables: a tasty dish made with fruit combined with green seasonal salad. For example: young spinach with orange slices or corn salad with green apple pieces or strawberries ... Season to taste these salads with 1 1/2 tablespoon olive oil and 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar (doses for 4 people). Obviously no bread and no more fruit.
  Here are the doses per head: 70g (2 1/2 ounces) short pasta, 1/4 glass of white wine, half a leek or a little leek, aromatic herbs, 1 courgette (zucchini), 1/4 can cherry tomatoes, 60g (2.1 ounces), 40g (1 1/2 ounce) flying squids, a handful shrimps, 1 or 2 sticks surimi, less than 2 teaspoons olive oil.
• - For a healthier recipe: don't sauté leeks and courgettes in olive oil. Put cherry tomatoes, leeks, courgettes (zucchini), bay leaf and flying squid rings in a pan. Bring to the boil, lower the flame and keep on cooking until flying squids are tender. Add hot stock or simply water only if necessary. At this point add peas, flavor for some minutes stirring with delicacy and switch off the gas. Add shrimps, surimi, basil, other herbs and olive oil. Stir. Taste to determine how much salt the sauce needs. In this way olive oil preserves all its properties.
• - If you want to drink a glass of wine remember you have to add 80-85 kCal per 100 ml.

What's the right wine for " Fish-and-vegetable pasta, baked in foil "?

Serve a rosé wine. Special are rosé wines producted in Salento (Apulia - Italy).