Here’s a lunch quick fix – meatballs. This dish is so simple and so versatile that you can choose to cook as is or with delicious Italian pasta sauce. Hubby and I are still in the process of moving to a new apartment and with a very busy schedule that coincided with our packing activities, we had to resort to quick “brown bag” fixes for the time being.

Ingredients:

Eggs, ground beef/pork, finely chopped onion, garlic, dried basil leaves, dried oregano leaves, chopped celery, salt, pepper, chopped carrots (optional), flour.

Mixing Procedure:

Mix all ingredients together until blended. Shape into meatballs.

Choices of cooking procedure:

a) Deep fry until golden brown (see picture below)

b) Bake for 25 minutes at 450 degrees.

Here is my own home-made version of Spaghetti Alla Carbonara, this one is made of available ingredients from the fridge and shelves so you might not find the usual stuff you know the real one is made up of. It was one of those successful experiments I like to make in my kitchen on random days.

Ingredients:
1 kg pasta of your choice, cooked al dente’
1/4 kg shrimps, head removed, deveined
150g King Sue ham or bacon, notice that I used pepperoni here (see photo)
1 small can Jolly mushrooms, sliced
fresh basil leaves – minced, set aside two or three whole leaves
a pinch of salt
bell peppers (optional)
pepper (optional)
onion
olive oil
1 can Nestle’ Cream
1 small can Alaska evaporated milk
1/4 cup Dari Creme butter
water

Procedure:

Cook pasta according to package directions, drain and set aside.

In a pan, saute onion in olive oil and butter until translucent. Put in minced basil leaves. Throw in ham or bacon (or in this case, pepperoni slices) and mushroom and let cook for about 3 minutes. Throw in shrimps and let cook until their color changes to pink. Pour in milk and cream, season with salt, stir constantly to avoid cream from sticking on the bottom of the pan. Let simmer on low fire until mixture boils and becomes thick. You can add water to add to the sauce if needed. Pour over cooked pasta and garnish with whole basil leaves. Serve with your favorite beverage.

Side note: For a great seafood taste, boil the removed shrimp head for about 5 minutes and use the boiled mixture instead of water.

I had to practically put everything else I was doing on hold to fully concentrate on what we would want Santino’s to be known for. What would be our specialty? What would be our trademark? We decided on offering the best pasta, but how?

Of course, this comes with hours and hours of extensive researching via the internet. I have spent back-breaking days looking for the best recipe and not to mention the seemingly endless quest for stores that sell the ingredients. There were some recipes I stumbled upon that I just knew would be hits, but with so much regret I had to drop them because of the lack of resources available in the area. This is one of the painful realities we have to deal with, offering Italian cuisine in a non-Italian country can be a challenge when it comes to the availability of ingredients. There are some supermarkets that sell some of the things I am looking for but they are priced rather unreasonably.

And then, after all the research was done, there is the process of testing the waters so to speak. Each recipe had to be cooked several times until the quality meets the standard of the Filipino taste. While we are offering Italian cuisine, it must not be forgotten however that we must still remain within the boundaries of the local palate. This is where some of the so-called ‘trade secrets’ come in nice and perfect.

In conclusion, searching the internet for the best and most delicious recipes is demanding in itself already, but cooking these recipes to perfection  (and by perfection I meant meeting certain quality standards) can be really challenging.

After a laborious three weeks, Santino’s menu is finally complete! The initial output was submitted to the hubby this afternoon for approval and he was so happy to see the results. We expect to add a few more dishes in the next days, or maybe even months but we just like to think that the current menu line-up is not yet final. Santino’s is a work in progress and so anything is still possible.

Santino’s is going to be  small restorante that would be serving the best Italian menu in town. As of the moment, it is still pretty much in conception and initial set up plans will be put into motion in the next two weeks or so.

This blog will chronicle the pains and gains of putting up a small resto from nothing except the passion for cooking, eating and living a decent life by earning a decent income. While being a restaurateur can be lots and lots of fun, we believe that it can also be a huge pain in the arse what with all the accounting, auditing, marketing and managing that one must learn to embrace along the way.

Join me as I perfect the art of cooking Italian pasta, which will be the main offering of Santino’s, and as I venture into the world of the unknown. Laugh at my mishaps and occasional stupidities and just be a big shoulder for me to vent and cry my eyes out.

Welcome to Santino’s!