Spicy Pasta

Ingredients
Boiled pasta: 2 cups (I use Penne Rigate for this recipe)

Chopped garlic: 3-4 tsp
Chopped red chillies: 1 tsp

Broccoli: ½ cup
Grated Parmesan cheese: 2 tsp

Pepper powder: ½ tsp

Salt: To taste

Olive oil: 2-3 tsp

Method
Heat olive oil in a pan and sauté garlic. Add red chillies and season with pepper and salt. Add broccoli and sauté for two minutes. Add boiled pasta followed by Parmesan cheese. Cook for 2-3 minutes and serve hot.

Quick Pasta

Ingredients
Boiled pasta: 2 cups (I use Penne Rigate for this recipe)

Finely chopped tomato: ½ cup

Finely chopped onion: ½ cup

Finely chopped capsicum: ½ cup

Chopped ginger: 1 tsp

Chopped garlic: 1 tsp

Chopped green chillies: 2-3

Salt: To taste
Olive oil: 2-3 tsp

Tomato sauce: 2 tsp

Method

Grind chillies, ginger, garlic and tomato sauce together. Heat oil in a pan and add onion. Saute well, add capsicum and then chopped tomatoes.  Add the paste and stir well. Add salt and cook for 2-3 minutes. Add water if you need gravy. Add pasta and toss gently so that the pasta is covered well with the masala. Serve hot.

Tomato Pasta

Ingredients

Boiled pasta: 2 cups (I use Penne Rigate for this recipe)

Diced tomatoes: 4-5 tomatoes

Garlic cloves: 3-4

Chopped onion: 1 cup

Water: ½ cup

Bay leaf: 1

Sugar: ½ tsp

Basil leaves: 4-5

Salt: To taste

Olive oil: 2-3 tsp

Method:
Boil tomatoes, 2 cloves of chopped garlic, ¾ cup of onion, bay leaf, salt and sugar with ½ cup of water. When tomatoes become soft, remove from the flame, cool and then grind to a puree and set aside.

Take a pan, heat oil and add the remaining onion and garlic. Saute them well and add the tomato puree. Cook till it reduces to half the amount. Add basil leaves and stir well. Add the cooked pasta and toss gently before serving hot.

Pesto Sauce

Pesto is commonly used in Italian pastas and trust me, no other substitute can match its taste. Basil leaves is one of the main ingredients. Pesto sauce is supposed to have originated in Genoa, northern Italy. Traditionally, it consisted crushed garlic, basil leaves and pine nuts blended with olive oil and Parmigiano Reggiano and Fiore Sardo.

Ingredients
Basil leaves: 1 cup
Pine nuts: 3-4 tsp
Garlic: 2-3 pods
Grated Parmesan cheese: 5-6 tsp
Grated Sardinian pecorino cheese: 2 tsp
Rock salt: ¼ tsp
Extra virgin olive oil: 5-6 tsp

Method
Wash the basil leaves gently in plenty of cold water. Make sure that the leaves don’t break or get crushed while washing. Allow the leaves to dry on a towel. 

A friend told me that a marble mortar and a wooden pestle is used to prepare authentic pesto. And many of us use the same back home to crush ginger-garlic, cinnamon, cloves, cardamom and other spices in small quantities. And there comes the advantage of having a marble mortar in the kitchen.

Crush garlic and pine nuts in the mortar till they are creamy. Add salt and dry basil leaves, a few at a time, and rotate the wooden pestle delicately against the sides of the mortar. Make sure you never beat the leaves. The delicate rotation of the pestle helps in extracting the essential oils from the basil leaves which are not broken, but are rubbed against the walls of the mortar. Rub the leaves till the sauce is mixed well and basil becomes a fine paste. Slowly add Parmesan and Sardinian pecorino cheese and mix with the pestle. Lastly, add extra virgin oil and mix well till all the ingredients blend well. Use the sauce for any cooked pasta. 

Note: Though grinder can make the sauce in a few seconds, taste definitely changes. 

If you are not using the sauce immediately, store in the refrigerator in a glass container by covering it with a layer of olive oil.

Farfalle Pasta

Ingredients
Farfalle pasta: 2 cups
White beans: 1 cup, cooked
Tomato: 2 medium sized
Fresh basil leaves: ¼ cup
Garlic: 2 cloves, crushed
Olive oil: ¼ cup
Salt: As per taste

Method
Combine olive oil and garlic in a bowl and set aside. Fill a large pot with lightly salted water and bring to a boil. Once the water starts boiling, add the Farfalle pasta. Cook the pasta uncovered, stirring occasionally, until it is cooked through, but is still firm to the bite. Drain well in a colander and add a few drops of olive oil, toss it well and keep aside. Take a pan and add 2-3 tsp olive oil mixed with garlic and add tomatoes and cook till it leaves juice. Add beans, basil, salt and stir well. Add cooked pasta and toss gently until all the ingredients are combined well with the pasta. Transfer to the serving bowl and add the remaining olive oil on the top.

Note: If you need, you can add pepper powder also.

Cavatappi Pasta

Ingredients
Pasta (Cavatappi): 2 cups
Tomato: 2 medium sized
Capsicum: 1 small size
Onion: 1 small size
Garlic: 2 cloves
Pepper powder: ½ tsp
Oregano: ¼ tsp
Basil: ¼ tsp
Salt: As per taste
Olive oil: 5-6 tsp
Fresh cream: 3-4 tsp
Cheese: 3-4 tsp

Method
Fill a large pot with lightly salted water and bring to a boil. Once the water starts boiling, add the Cavatappi pasta. Cook the pasta uncovered, stirring occasionally, until it is cooked through, but is still firm to the bite. Drain well in a colander and add a few drops of olive oil, toss it well and keep aside. Remove seeds from tomato and chop them finely. Chop capsicum, onion and garlic also finely. Heat olive oil in a pan and add onion and garlic and saute till they turn golden brown. Add chopped tomato and fry well for 4-5 minutes. Mash the tomato well so that it leaves all its juice in the pan. Add pepper, basil, oregano and salt and saute for a minute. Add capsicum and fresh cream and mix well. Add the cooked pasta followed by cheese before tossing everything gently. Transfer to serving bowl and add olive oil on top.

Note: Normally, Parmesan cheese is used in Italian pasta, but Mozzarella cheese will also do.