Original Pasta Recipe

OK why should a blog be predictable? Let's make it as unpredictable as possible!

So here is a recipe that I just cooked up and enjoyed today.
And I am going to give details that usually the recipe books DON'T care to mention.

So today the wife started the topic of 'what's for dinner' (...as if I decide...)
And as usual the husband says 'whatever...' (lets be safe ... not enough information to commit...)
Wife: Say something, it's very annoying to hear 'whatever ...' if you just say what you want it will be easy to serve (ok, you unmarried folks beware this is a true lie ... you start something and you're committed to it for at least 4 hours and few days after)

To cut it short, I agreed (don't we always agree!) when the wife said 'I'll make pasta'
Well, do you think that is the end of the happy story of the day ... no way ...
Well, the wife says, I'll go get some pasta and some sauce and vegetables...
Surprise surprise ... so you can all guess what happened right?

I went shopping and found the pasta (well at least I was particular what type of pasta I wanted, so I got some Penne).

Why Penne: because pasta is sort of tasteless, it doesn't mix well with anything (if you overcook pasta you can get it to mix with everything but it will no longer be pasta just paste). If you make a red sauce it is better to use Penne so that it runs into the pasta, you want to stuff something into pasta use cannelloni. If you use white sauce (creamy and cheesy avoid Penne and Macaroni so that it doesn't become too cheesy and creamy).

And the next part is the cheese, we don't get too many varieties of cheese here in India at the usual supermarkets, so use whatever you manage to get - but plan is to make a red sauce without cheese

I got some 'pizza cheese' ... nobody knows what it contains, for my daughter who wants only cheesy pasta... so she had pasta with cheese and nothing else ... and my son eats everything separately ... well that means he has a bowl of steamed pasta (he eats with his hand) ...a bowl of steamed vegetables ... a portion of cut cheese ... yes this is all true ... and I will post a video clip to help the disbelievers ... now back to the original recipe

You must avoid the usual Indian vegetables and even some non-Indian ones. Here are some that are allowed to be used cauliflower (but not broccoli as it crumbles, but you may use Broccoli as a side dish if you must and if you like it), capsicum - preferably all 3 colors, carrots. I personally avoid using chunky tomatoes, or onions. Sliced pitted olives depending on taste.

It is important to make sure that the sauce and the vegetables and the pasta ready for mixing almost at the same time. Reheating is absolutely forbidden. Serving the pasta from the cooking utensils is to be avoided. Using the water that was used for boiling the pasta is an absolute no no ... because the starch/gluten from the pasta will make the final preparation a bit pasty. If you want to drink it just add something tangy and drink it separately... there are all kinds of people int he world ...

Get Penne pasta that is made from Durum wheat. The package may say many things but own logic is to use this as it has less gluten and more fiber.

For the sauce (you may increase the quantity depending on the number of people - these are for 2 people - but I can't be precise, you have to use your own judgment),
1 onion, 2 garlic (whole not just 2 cloves), a lot of tomatoes (about 10 else the sauce will become too dry), 1 type of herb (examples are mint, coriander, basil - avoid using too many herbs), 2 really hot whole red chillies. If you want it more spicy add a spoon of white pepper.

Here are some options. You may use the tomatoes whole or remove the pulp (the pasty mushy mushy stuff with seeds) from inside, I prefer to remove that, and then you must use more tomatoes and a little more water to avoid making the sauce too dry. You may use the red chillies whole or remove the seeds. It all depends on your own taste buds. If you remove the seeds then you may want to use 3 or 4 chillies instead of two.

So you put the whole lot and grind them in a mixer thoroughly. Pour the whole stuff into a non-stick sauce pan and stir constantly until the sauce is ready to use ... ok but then there are some other parallel stuff to do so watch out else all will not be as expected.

The pasta must be under boil now and it will be ready to use by now ... so you would have started the boiling of the pasta before the sauce was ready to pour out on the pan.
The water should have been boiling hot already before you put the pasta into it, else the pasta will become too soft even before the water starts to boil. And the pasta should be strained out of the water as soon as it is sufficiently cooked and not allowed to soak in the hot water. Right? It is all too easy once you practice this a few times. Don't you SMS with one hand while driving?

Now the vegetables should have been put into a pressure cooker (but the pressure weight MUST NOT be used for any reason) in a perforated bowl and steamed or a steamer if you know how to use it properly. You have to start this process so that the pasta and the sauce are ready at the same time. So you have to use your judgement when you should have started this depending on the quantity and type of vegetables you used and how long they typically take to cook. Overcooking or under-cooking (as some restaurants try to serve and we all seem to accept as 'gourmet' dishes) will spoil the whole show.

Now going back to the sauce, remember it was simmering on the pan? So what did you add to the sauce mix? Water? Some sort of hydrogenated vegetable oil? Full fat butter? Denatured protein in the form of 'ghee'? Some sort of poly unsaturated fatty acid? Nope. If you said yes to any of it they you just lost her forever.

The sauce was simmering on the pan and the base was fresh tomato puree (that you just made yourself). It is usual to underestimate the number of tomatoes needed. So always use 1/3rd more than you think is necessary, especially if you removed the pulp and seeds. By the way use always very ripe very red tomatoes. The base already had all the good stuff in it, garlic, onions, 1 herb, chillies.

So we have the sauce ready to pour, the pasta strained out of the water, the vegetables steamed and ready. All three key ingredients are ready now at the same time.

Let's talk about some examples of disasters to avoid:
You pour the sauce into a bowl and add the veggies and the pasta and mix them and leave them either on a stove to keep warm or let them go cold.
You take the mixed stuff and put it into a bowl and reheat it in a microwave.
You mix the stuff and leave for a few hours and find it all messed up and try to add water and boil it again.
You can me more and more creative about disasters.
We humans are experts at this.

But just keep things simple. The pasta and the veggies should be ready (and strained of the water) when the sauce is ready to pour. Here are two options:

1. You take a large bowl and pour all three and mix them with a soft spoon (so as not to hurt the pasta and veggies) - then serve on a plate - as best as you can to make it appealing

2. You take a large plate and put some of the pasta on it - make an island in the middle and add some of the veggies - then pour the sauce over it all - be artistic about this

Now somethings were missing in this whole process. Where is the salt and where is the oil?
As we did not use any ready made stuff (for those of you who thought of taking a short cut - here are more disasters to avoid) such as garlic puree, tomato puree, chilli powder, herb powders (you just need one fresh herb so why do you need powders and is she not worth this little effort), chaat masala, garam masala and all that good stuff that we usually use, there was no salt in any of the ingredients we used and we did not use any oil. Which means when you simmered the sauce, you must use a non-stick pan.

Get some rock salt and powder it in a mixer. The salt is to be added when you mix the 3 parts (if you go for option 1 above). If you go for option 2 above then add the salt to the sauce only before you apply the sauce over the pasta and the veggies.

What about the oil? Well, you have two options: don't use any oil. We didn't need to use any oil till now right? But if you must use oil then use pure virgin olive oil. Don't ask me why. If you use it then use it exactly when you applied the salt. That means you mix the oil with the sauce and salt for option 1. For option 2, mix the salt with the sauce just before applying over the pasta and veggies.

Some more doubts will come over this recipe. What if you want to use anything other than veggies. Well, here I cannot provide any expert advise. I suggest you ask someone else about what comes near veggies.

Some more tips about what could spoil the whole experience. Participate, don't cook this yourself, let her do it. She is the expert. When you peel the onions don't try to optimise, remove all the dry layers and go deep into it and remove the stem inside also usually onions are rotten so smell them before you use them after peeling them. Same with the garlic, after you peel the last layer you will find some brown filament left. Make sure you remove them, as they dry up when you fry the sauce and you will encounter them when you eat.

So much ado about pasta ...