Pasta

Well, I am writing here a recipe for Pasta that I use. And there are reasons due to which it is unlikely that I will use a drastically different recipe for Pasta than this.

So, we need pasta first of all. You can get penne pasta or spaghetti. But I like penne more.
There are various shapes for pasta. Penne feels quite standard and decent.

Make sure the Pasta is durum wheat semolina. You can buy Del Monte, Borges, Barilla or La Molisana.

Next we need spices. So you need

• Rosemary
• Thyme
• Oregano
• Red Chilli Flakes
• Basil
• Parsley
• Black Pepper (little coarse, not fine powder)
• Salt (pink or white)

Here’s the recipe (for one person),

1. Take 1L of water and get it to boil in a pan. Take 80-100g of penne pasta and add this to the boiling water and add 1 teaspoon salt along with it. Move it a little, and let it be for 10-12 mins (each pasta has time written on it, and you’ll get an idea in a few days). Gas should be on maximum. We need to move the pasta once in a while so that it doesn’t stick.
2. Meanwhile, take a kadhai, turn on the gas on full, and add ghee. Now, when the ghee is hot, add wheat flour. Maybe 1-2 teaspoon. It depends on the quantity of ghee actually. But we need to move it continuously and make a kind of halwa, lol. You’ll get the smell of halwa when the flour gets brownish.
3. When you get the halwa smell, add malai in this and move rigorously. How much malai you add depends on how much fat you are ready to eat.
4. Now, add milk to this mixture. Maybe around 1 glassful or more. If you add less milk, then we’ll need ‘pasta water’ later. If you add sufficient milk, then we don’t need any other liquid. When milk is added, mix once and put the gas on min and let it be. What we have in kadhai right now is a thicker white mixture. It looks like milk but is thicker. And it will become more thick as time passes.
5. To this mixture, we’ll add the spices. Add 1/2 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp red chilli flakes, 1/2 tsp black pepper, 1/4 tsp oregano, 1/4 tsp basil, 1/4 tsp parsley, 1/8 tsp thyme, 1/8 tsp rosemary. And mix once. A little parsley can also be added again towards the last.
6. Oh btw, by now the pasta 10-12 mins boiling time is over. Take a strainer, and get the water out and add the pasta in the kadhai. If you added less milk in the kadhai, you may reserve some pasta water (the salty water we just drained). This water can be added to the kadhai if we need more liquid.
7. And while the pasta was boiling or milk was kind of boiling in the kadhai, we needed to saute some vegetables. So, take a tadka pan, heat some ghee, and saute some capsicum and corn. Now, we add this to the kadhai after pasta.
8. Now, everything is added to the kadhai and we only need to move the pasta. So that it doesn’t stick at the bottom. If there is too much liquid, keep on moving till it evaporates. Overall, we must heat the pasta atleast 5 min. And done. The final pasta should be almost dry, and not liquidy.

Note : This recipe is a bit heavy but healthy and almost sattvic. Maybe little rajasic due to red chilli flakes. We did not use any cheese, because proper cheese like parmesan is non-vegetarian due to rennet (a liquid they use to make the cheese). Although cheese is definitely healthier than malai, but I am not in favor of Amul cheese and the like. Either we use a proper, aged cheese or we skip it entirely. If you have good vegetarian cheese, go ahead and use it in place of malai. And also add it at the last, when pasta is almost cooked. Even if we add malai at the last, it does make it creamy, but mind the fat. In fact, if we have good vegetarian cheese, then we may skip the wheat flour altogether. But this recipe is for those who will not use cheese at all.