Noche Buena

This is a bit late but I just want to share what we had for Noche Buena. I prepared two kind of salads - fruit and macaroni which is always present on the tables of most Filipinos during special occasions. I also cooked chicken siomai (chicken dumplings), Spaghetti Tomatina and my own version of tosta dulce (it goes well with Spaghetti Tomatina). And we had dates for dessert... :) dates are common here in Saudi Arabia and there are different varieties. My favorite are the ones that are not too sweet... Yum!

Spaghetti ala Tomatina

Tomatoes are quite expensive here hence, when it went on sale a couple of days ago I bought more than a kilo. I used some of them for my Spaghetti ala Tomatina. It is a simple pasta dish that my husband and kids enjoy eating once in a while. I was also able to purchase 3 packs (450grams per pack) of spaghetti noodles for       SAR 10.00 at the nearby Panda supermarket. Normal price of a single 450gram pack range from SAR 3.50 to around SAR 5.50 hence, I saved 0.50 halala. As the saying goes "Every halala (penny) saved, is a halala (penny) earned." :)

For this recipe, you would need:

7-10 pieces of tomatoes, sliced

5 cloves of garlic, minced

1 medium red onion, sliced

fish sauce or salt to taste

ground pepper

Olive oil

Crumbled feta cheese or Labneh cheese

500 g spaghetti noodles

Saute garlic, onions and tomatoes in olive oil, put salt or pour 1/4 cup fish sauce to taste. Sprinkle ground pepper and simmer until tomato is cooked. Pour this into freshly cooked pasta noodles along with the cheese and mix thoroughly. Serve hot :)  

Enjoy! Bon Apetit!