What people have to say - December 2013

Its been over a month since we have launched, and we have our first bit of customer feedback. We thought it is a good idea to put all this feedback to words, and provide an answer wherever applicable.

A lot of feedback has been very positive; the texture and flavour of our pasta has been a big hit, as well as the branding, website, look and feel. The visual appeal of the product matches its intention, and for this we are very proud and happy. The flavours of our sauces have also received a lot of appreciation, and everybody agrees that the sauce quantity is generous, more than enough for the meal.

Slyly Simple baked ravioli

A few people have had a suspicious expression on hearing that the pasta is whole wheat, some are convinced that it would be too healthy to be tasty. Some have compared it to whole wheat pasta available in the supermarket, and have declared that they don't like whole wheat.

However, we are very happy to say, that after trying our products, we don't have a single complaint that our pasta is more healthy than it is tasty! except for the slightly darker colour, it isn't at all apparent that the pasta is whole wheat when it comes to taste and texture. Perhaps Slyly Simple will set the trend for wholesome food that looks and tastes good as well!

We are grateful and motivated by the positive feedback, and would like now elaborate on the criticism and points for improvement.

1. Why is it so expensive?

Most people who have ever tried their hand at fresh pasta do not have this question. People who compare the quality of the product with the best quality available in high end gourmet restaurants also do not have this question. But we have been faced with this question a couple of times, so here is the justification.
As far as ingredients are concerned, we use premium quality whole wheat, organic/free range eggs, organic soya flour and spices, imported cheese and olive oil, vegetables and herbs are either organic, or have minimum fertilizers/pesticides. We are a small scale unit, and can only buy our ingredients at retail rates. We do not skimp on the quantity or quality of any of our ingredients with the aim to cut costs. Good ingredients speak for good quality products, and our products speak for themselves.

Free range eggs are better for health

We use fresh produce

Our packaging is made from good quality materials so they can be reused for household purposed, or can be recycled.

Packaged ravioli

Slyly Simple aims to provide easy to use products, to make gourmet meals in your own kitchen without any of the preparation and planning that is actually needed. This means that we do the preparation and planning for you. We source the ingredients, evaluate the quality of the goods, work out recipes, check quality, procure packaging, work hard to make hand crafted pasta for your plate. The organisational effort and logistics aside, the process of creating our products is time consuming and physically demanding. Whole wheat dough specially requires more kneading, to attain the right consistency for pasta. Vegan pasta is even more difficult, since it takes a lot more kneading and a very delicate balance of moisture to flour so that the dough will bind properly. The dough needs to be kneaded in batches, and every flavour of pasta will mean another batch of dough. Once kneaded, the dough is rested for some time, after which the pasta rollers are used to bring the pasta into shape. While fettuccine is machine-cut, our ravioli and farfalle are individually hand crafted. Every piece is carefully examined to make sure the pasta holds its shape even while cooking. The shaped pasta is laid out to dry for some time, after which it is packaged. This means that the average physical effort needed to make one box of simple pasta is at least 1-2 hours. Ravioli is even more complex, since the filling must be made and cooled separately, and the packaging and storage is more complex.
Consider all this, and add to it operational costs, excess and wastage, and the price you come to is likely to be much higher than what we offer!

2. The quantity is too little

The portions in each box is sufficient for two people, when the pasta is part of a complete meal - which means that there are additional items like a soup/salad/dessert to go with it. If this is the only item in your meal, then this would be enough for two moderate eaters. Our portions are determined based on research of average meal sizes, and we rather leave you hungry for more, than have excess food on your plate!

Typical serving size for one person

3. The pasta did not absorb the flavour of the sauce/the flavour of the sauce was too strong

We received this feedback from one person, and we have been thinking about this in detail. Unfortunately, the two statements appear a little contradictory, since you would normally have stronger flavours because the pasta absorbed the sauce a little too well! People who are accustomed to using dry pasta may end up using a little too much sauce when working with fresh pasta.

Fettuccine with pesto and fresh vegetables

In any case, fresh pasta tends to absorb more sauce than dried pasta. We have also experienced this ourselves, which leaves us a little puzzled as to why we have this feedback.
The method of cooking could also result in this feedback, though. Some people tend to rinse the pasta in cold water after cooking - this means that the starch on the surface of the pasta is washed off, and the pasta cannot absorb any sauce after that... this method is only recommended while making cold pasta salads, where you want the pasta to cool down without overcooking.

4. The ravioli packaging needs improvement

We have had some glitches with the ravioli packaging, which we are working on. Since the ravioli filling is freshly cooked, it has moisture in it, which makes the pasta moist. This means that the ravioli needs to be frozen until it is ready to cook, which puts constraints on our packaging and distribution mechanism.
Having said this, we are working on the problem and are happy to announce that we have had a few batches of successfully packed ravioli. It is still too early to celebrate, but hopefully we will get there soon.
The few of you who have had bad luck with our ravioli will get a special offer with your next order!

5. The pesto bottles leak

To keep pesto fresh, it is necessary to cover the surface with a little bit of olive oil. This oil seems to seep through any kind of packaging we use, and we have tried improving the sealing, taping the lid down, even other containers.. the problem persists. To work around this, we have now added a second layer of packing to the pesto bottles to make it easy and cleaner to handle. We hope this works better now!

6. The cooking instructions are off the mark

The pasta should be immersed into the water only after the water has reached a boil. This is when the cooking time begins. Since ravioli is frozen, it may take a couple of minutes longer than the other pasta.

7. Is it possible to avoid the plastic packaging?

We tried very hard to have completely eco-friendly packaging. But we also needed packaging that is easy to store, easy to handle during transport, can be frozen for the ravioli and repels moisture. To have all these options and to still keep the price affordable, we were forced to select plastic. However, we only use high grade plastic materials which can be recycled or reused for household purposes. Our pasta boxes also provide suggestions on how the packaging could be reused.

8. Children don't like whole wheat/children want white sauce

While it is difficult to please children, we have experienced children relishing our pasta and coming back for seconds (and thirds). We have had stalls where we have served fresh cooked food - while a lot of children were initially disappointed that there wasn't any white sauce, they all were very satisfied with the flavour of the pasta after they tried it. We believe it is important to educate our children to eat wholesome meals, and Slyly Simple gives you that opportunity to serve your kids food that is fun and wholesome at the same time!

9. We want more shapes

We want more shapes too! We intend to expand our product list over time, starting with lasagna sheets, and moving on to short pasta shapes. We will get there, all you need to do is keep a close eye on what we make next!

10. Why is there a dog on the box? Is this dog food?

Errr... No this isn't intended to be dog food, but the dogs love it too! The dog on the box is the brand mascot and the reason while Slyly Simple came to be. Our food is honest, simple and sincere - with no agenda other than to leave you in a state of good health and good spirits, much in the same way our brand mascot does for us!

Our inspiration and mascot

On the whole, it has been a fantastic beginning. More than 90% of our patrons have had only good things to say, and we hope that the rest of you are convinced that we take your opinion seriously, and will do our best to continue to give you the best possible gourmet food.

Garlic Pepper Fettuccine with Creamy Pesto

Here is a recipe to combine Slyly Simple garlic pepper fettuccine with some basil walnut pesto and put together a rather exotic meal in minutes.

Follow the simple instructions step by step and let us know if it worked for you!

Cook the pasta:

Fill a saucepan with water and bring to boil. Add salt to the water (about 1 teaspoon per litre). Reduce the heat and bring the water to a gentle simmer.
Take a box of Slyly Simple Garlic Pepper Fettuccine (available on www.slylysimple.com/order/html) and gently add the contents to the simmering water.
Let the pasta cook for about 5-6 minutes until it is just about cooked al-dente (overcooked pasta is no fun, this is probably the most important step).

Prepare the sauce:

While the pasta cooks, take about 4 tablespoons of Slyly Simple Basil Walnut pesto in a bowl. Add about 100g of cream to it (you could use milk instead for a lighter version). Mix well to get a consistent sauce.

Sundried tomatoes go excellently with this sauce. If you have some, add a few sundried tomatoes to the mix. (If you love sundried tomatoes, keep a careful watch on Slyly Simple on Facebook. We hope to add these to our product list soon).

Finishing touches:

When the pasta is cooked, its time to get the dish together.
Put the sauce into a saucepan on low flame, and let it slowly warm up. Drain the pasta well, and add the pasta to the saucepan with the warm sauce.
Gently shake the saucapan (or toss with a wooden spoon) so that the pasta is well coated with the sauce while keeping the mixture on a low flame. Keep the pasta warm for about 1-2 minutes, then serve into plates.
Garnish with grated parmesan or chopped basil, and serve while hot.

Unfortunately we haven'y been able to take any pictures of the meal, it always disappears too quickly! Hopefully one of these days we can update this page with a picture.

Cooking pasta is easy!

Cooking pasta is easy, and there's little that can go wrong with it... here are some tips so that you enjoy every bite of your meal:

1. Fill a saucepan with water, and add a little salt to it (maybe 1tsp for every litre)

2. Bring the water to boil

3. Reduce the heat, so that the water is gently simmering

4. Gently introduce your Slyly Simple fresh pasta

5. Since all Slyly Simple pasta is made of whole wheat flour, let the pot simmer for around 5 minutes until the pasta is cooked, but is still firm to bite (cooked al dente).

6. Drain the pasta using a strainer, and toss it into a bowl with your favourite Slyly Simple sauce.

7. Toss well - garnish with cheese or basil or olives or sundried tomatoes or anything else that you prefer.

8. Eat hot!

Alternative:
Drain the pasta a little before it is full cooked, and introduce to a pan containing hot pasta sauce. Let the pasta cook fully in the sauce - this way it absorbs the flavours better.

Keep watching this space for oven and microwave suggestions!

Baked Ravioli

Making a batch of ravioli for a larger group of people can be time consuming - since the ravioli will need to be cooked in batches depending on the size of the saucepan. Besides, it is a challenge to keep the ravioli warm while you are cooking the rest of the batches, and you need to pester your guests to eat as soon as the ravioli is ready, lest it become cold and not quite as enjoyable. Ravioli also needs to be handled delicately, and you need to be really careful while tossing large quantities of it with a pasta sauce, so that none of them break apart. All together, serving ravioli to a larger group of people is a challenge, even when it is done the slyly simple way.

I've discovered the next best solution - bake it! You can cook all the ravioli in one go, leave it to cook in the oven as you can enjoy a conversation with your guests, and its much easier to keep it warm until its time to serve. You're far less likely to break the ravioli since they do not need to be handled as much - and even if a couple of pieces break, it still stays together without compromising on flavour or presentation. The texture of baked ravioli is not as soft as when they are boiled, so critics and connoiseurs may not approve - but I find this method to be very effective and tasty, particularly when you have a hungry lot hovering around the kitchen.

Here's how to go about it...

Step 1: Line a baking dish with a little bit of olive oil to make sure the pasta doesn't stick. Now spread out the ravioli in a single layer along the bottom of the dish.

Step 2: Cover the ravioli with your preferred pasta sauce - my favourite combination is with the cheesy tomato Slyly Simple sauce.

Step 3: Get creative - I used some asparagus in my dish. Perhaps you would like to try out some pieces of broccoli or mushrooms instead. You could even skip this step, it is going to taste great regardless.

Step 4: Add some cheese - I used grated cheddar here, but I imagine this would also be great with stronger flavours like goat cheese. You could skip this step too - although I'd say a bake looks incomplete without cheese :-)

If you like, you could repeat the steps above and make a second layer - my baking dish was wide enough so I stopped at one layer.

Step 5: Cover the dish with aluminium foil so that it bakes uniformly without burning the cheese. Pop into a pre-heated oven at about 100-120 degrees celcius, and bake for about 30-40 minutes. Baking time and temperature are rough estimates, its always safer to use a lower temperature and check on your dish after the first 20 minutes.

You could garnish the dish at the end with some fresh herbs or a dollop of butter if you like. Or if you can't wait anymore - just dig in!

Disclaimer: This dish is going to be a big hit, and you probably wont have enough. You may have some hungry faces at the dinner table even after this has been polished off.

Simple and sly - here's why

Wake up to an alarm, rush through your morning routine - walk the dog, get ready for work, drink some tea, shove in some breakfast, send the kids to school, instruct the maid... whatever it is that you need to do before you can finally step out. Its a big race to get out of the house on time, so you can spend the next one hour inching along in traffic, wishing you could have had an extra hour in bed instead. Work constitutes long hours in front of a computer, waiting endlessly for elevators, queues at the coffee machine, hurried lunches and dreaming about the weekend! Its finally time to take off in the evening, and you leave work full of plans of a fun evening - a movie perhaps, or visit the new restaurant, a nourishing dinner with the family, maybe invite some friends over. But then you have the arduous task of getting home, and plans change to slouching in front of the television, order in some pizza, serve the family some instant food, and socialize on Facebook instead. Nobody dreams of the mundane evenings we live every day, and yet, somehow, we are all stuck with the routine, Monday to Friday, waiting for the weekend of the mid-week holiday.
Traffic in Bangalore is out of control - and yes I know we all are part of the problem when we drive to work every day instead of using the public transport. Solving the traffic problem is another debate altogether, but we also need to look at what this does to our lives, our choices and our health. This is the very reason why Slyly Simple came into being - to make it possible to eat healthy, tasty and easily on a regular basis, in spite of all the problems that routine, traffic and pressure throw at you.

At the end of your day, the easiest thing to do is to grab a packet of instant noodles from the shelf. Now replace the noodles with a packet of fresh whole wheat pasta, and replace the taste maker with a dollop of fresh pasta sauce - the same effort results in a burst of flavour packed with health, freshness and nutrition. Its easy enough for anybody to make, and healthy enough to be eaten every day.
Experiment, add your own special touch - a dash of cream, some extra cheese, sauteed vegetables, meat, fish - with the basics in place your meal could only go from great to better. Its homemade, its gourmet, its exotic - bring a splash of flavour and fun to your mundane routine slyly and simply!

Green that's to be envied

I am largely vegetarian myself, and I simply couldn't live without a regular dose of milk and cheese. But I have noticed quite a few friends who are vegan have limited options when it comes to italian meals. Fresh pasta almost always has egg in it, and its really hard to come by a pasta dish without any cheese. Their only option is often the aglio olio - I incidentally quite like this but only with a generous sprinkling of parmesan on top! :-)

When I decided to try out vegan recipes for pastas and sauces, I was quite skeptical on how it would turn out. I was wondering if the pasta would have any texture - and if the sauces would taste like bland tomato juice. Well, here's the verdict:

The truth is, pasta without egg is hard to make. Its much harder to get a good dough, and requires a lot more kneading and a lot more physical effort. But it is possible to eventually have a good consistency which can be rolled into quite nice pasta. I added a splash of green by using some spinach - I thought it would be easier for me to avoid any mix ups while packaging or serving. I think it looks quite attractive, and even more exotic when served on a plate.

The vegan pasta sauce, on the other hand has a wonderful fresh tomato flavour to it, spiked with some chilli and herbs. It blends very well with the pasta, and I have had a few hard core meat eaters and cheese addicts declare that this is by far their favourite dish!

The zucchini and wasabi soup is vegan too - which may surprise you thanks to its creamy texture.

All in all, I am quite thrilled with the results - and vegan or not, I strongly recommend you try it!