Feed The Hope

Photo courtesy of Catelli

Did you know summer is the slowest time for donations to food banks?  In Canada, 850,000 people use food banks each month and more than 36% of them are children and youth.  To help food banks during this shortage, 15 of Canada's leading chefs have gotten together to participate in Catelli's Feed The Hope campaign.  Each chef has contributed a recipe to the cookbook Catelli^® Pasta Plus Five: Five-ingredient summer pasta dishes by some of Canada’s top chefs.

Photo courtesy of Catelli

Each recipe is a gourmet pasta dish that uses only 5 key ingredients in addition to the pasta!  These are perfect for those days when you want to whip up a quick meal.  For every "share" of the cookbook on Facebook, Catelli will donate one serving of pasta to food banks.  Catelli will also donate one serving of pasta for every box of pasta purchased at participating retailers.  In Ontario, the participating retailers are Sobeys and Metro.  Catelli is aiming to donate one million servings of pasta.

The following are 2 of the recipes that are included in the cookbook.  I am looking forward to giving both of them a try!

Curried Yogurt Bows

Chef Emil Shellborn, Fairmont Winnipeg

Curried Yogurt Bowls (Photo courtesy of Catelli)

Prep time: 10 min

Cook time: 10 min

Servings: 4

Ingredients: 

1 pkg (340 g) Catelli Smart^® Bows

2 – 3 chicken breasts, grilled or pan roasted

1 mango, diced

1/2 red pepper, diced

1 cucumber, diced

2 green onions, sliced

Curried Yogurt Dressing:

2 cups (500 ml) Greek style plain yogurt

1 tbsp (15 ml) curry powder

1 tsp (5ml) Siracha sauce or any other hot sauce

handful of cilantro, roughly chopped

juice of half a lime

salt and pepper to taste

Garnish:

Cilantro, roughly chopped, added to taste

Instructions:

Step 1:  Combine all ingredients for curried yogurt dressing, mix well.

Step 2:  Cook pasta according to instructions on the package. Drain and rinse well to cool.

Step 3:  Combine the pasta with cooked chicken, mango and vegetables in large mixing bowl.

Step 4: Add half of the yogurt mixture first, combine and add more to taste. Season with salt and pepper.

Step5 : Garnish with fresh cilantro.

Tip:

The curried yogurt makes a great mayo substitute on sandwiches and a great dipping sauce for fish, grilled meats or vegetables.

Substitute the chicken in this dish for shrimp or lots of green vegetables.

Whole Wheat Macaroni Summer Picnic Salad

Chef David Flegel, Hyatt Regency Hotel, Calgary

Whole Wheat Summer Picnic Salad (Photo courtesy of Catelli)

Prep time: 15 min

Cook time: 13 min

Servings: 5

Ingredients: 

1 pkg (375 g) Catelli^® Healthy Harvest^® Macaroni

1 can cooked black beans, strained and rinsed

2 cups (300 g) corn kernels, canned and strained or frozen and thawed

2 red bell pepper, diced small

2 avocado, diced

2 cups (300 g) fresh blueberries

Dressing

1  cup (200 ml) fresh low fat plain yogurt

1 fresh lemon, juiced

10 sprigs fresh cilantro chopped

1/2 tsp cumin powder
pinch of salt to taste

Garnish:

Fresh cilantro sprigs

Instructions:

Step 1: In salted boiling water, add the Catelli^® Healthy Harvest^® Macaroni and cook to tender, about 13 minutes (for a salad dish, the pasta is better if it is cooked tender) and chill in the fridge.

Step 2: In a bowl, add the corn, diced bell pepper, beans, diced avocado and blueberries. Toss lightly to mix.

Step 3: Add the chilled, cooked pasta.

Step 4: Mix all the dressing ingredients in a separate bowl and season to taste. Add dressing to the pasta and toss lightly. Garnish with cilantro sprigs and serve cold.

Tip:

To remove the avocado from the skin, score all the way around and split avocado. With the sharp edge of a knife, gently hit the seed and twist to remove. Place a spoon between the skin and the pulp and scoop it out following along the skin.

To use any leftover salad, add a 300 ml can of tomato sauce to it and mix. Put it in a casserole pan and top with grated cheese and bake in a 350 degree oven for 20 minutes.

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You can get all the recipes and help Catelli get to one million pasta servings by:

• visiting Catelli
• visiting Catelli's Facebook page and sharing Catelli^® Pasta Plus Five: Five-ingredient summer pasta dishes by some of Canada’s top chefs
• purchasing a box of Catelli pasta at participating retailers from now until the end of May.