Pasta in Creamy Basil Pesto

Ohh I love spring and summer here in Scandinavia for the fresh veggies and greens that comes to the market! Back in India, the change in seasons hardly went noticed – except for very seasonal veggies and fruits like mangoes in summer, jackfruit in rainy season, avrekayi in winter and a few more, there is hardly any change in the availability of other veggies. However, here seasons are a big deal! Everything depends on the seasons and the same goes for the food that you cook due to the availability of ingredients. Of course you get most of the items as frozen these days, but we are more of fresh-food loving people!

So one of the things I look forward to in spring and summer is fresh basil! Oh how I have fallen in love with this herb! I love love it and so does D. So every time we see a bunch of fresh basil, we just greedily grab it! And most of the times it goes into a pesto and then to a pasta, though occasionally there are other experiments with it.

This is one of the pastas that we love – quick, flavorful, wholesome, as rich/dull as you want it, and versatile – do any changes you want and it tastes differently good! It is also good for lunch box (see notes below).

If you’re in a place where you can get fresh basil, don’t miss trying this! Here’s the recipe…

 Pasta in Creamy Basil Pesto 

Ingredients:

Pasta - 200 gms, Penne or any other shape

Onions - 1 medium sized, chopped (optional)

Green chilies - 1, slit (optional – only if you want extra heat)

Olive oil – 2-3 tsp

Full Milk/Cream/Crème Fraiche – 1/2 cup, adjust according to the consistency needed

Cheese – Parmesan / Mozzarella – 3-4 Tbsp, shredded

For the Pesto:

Fresh basil leaves – 1 medium sized bunch

Walnuts or pine nuts – 1/2 cup

Garlic – 1-2 flakes

Olive oil - 1 Tbsp

Pepper powder - ½ - 1 tsp, adjust acc to taste

Salt - ½ tsp or as per taste

Method:

Pesto:

• Pick and wash basil leaves.

• Optionally toast the walnuts / pine nuts slightly – it is ok to use raw too

• In a blender/mixie jar add the nuts, basil leaves and garlic and pulse till coarse

• Add the olive oil, salt and pepper and continue to pulse till almost smooth and scoop out into a bowl

Pasta:  

• Cook pasta as per instructions on the packet, drain and let cool slightly

• Heat 1 Tsp of oil in a pan and sauté the onion with green chilly if using, till they are cooked but slightly crunchy.

• Add the pesto prepared above and bring to a gentle boil.

• Mix in the pasta, adjust salt and pepper

• Finally add the cream/milk to make it slightly saucy – or to the consistency you prefer.

• Garnish with shredded cheese and mix well

Notes:

• Pasta can be just mixed with the pesto and served as is – But I prefer doing it his way and adding some cream so that it is more saucy and gets coated with the pesto well.

• Mixing it ahead of serving time makes the pasta dry. Mix just before serving.

• I make this for D’s lunch box also sometimes. I boil the pesto with cheese and cream and pack the cooked and completely cooled pasta and the pesto sauce separately. He heats it in a microwave and mixes just before eating.

•I also add some veggies like capsicum sometimes to make it healthier and to add a new dimension.

Veggie Calzone

We have started loving Italian and other Continental dishes for dinner. Mostly baked ones, they take time only for the preparation but the cooking does not ones active time as the oven takes care of it! You'll see a few dishes coming up on those lines. 

A calzone, meaning  "stocking" or "trouser" in Italian, is a turnover or folded pizza. It is shaped like a half-moon and made of bread dough. The calzone is folded over and filled with ingredients common to pizza. The typical calzone is stuffed with tomato and mozzarella, and may include other ingredients that are normally associated with pizza toppings. [Wikipedia]

We had had Calzone in Dominos in Bangalore and had liked it. The recipe being very flexible, one can come up with numerous varieties, based on likings of ingredients, spices/herbs, cheese, etc. I used a recipe with Whole wheat flour for the dough and the filling was my my choice of veggies – moslty what I had on hand; so was the cheese. When preparing for it, I felt it was almost like making chapathi + a subzi! The only difference is I had to roll out less than half of them, and instead of cooking them on tava, one by one and then serving hot, alongside the subzi, it was like stuffing the rolled dough and baking them all at once, so that we both could sit down and eat together, when they were still piping hot! Taste wise – well, there is no comparison! They tasted heavenly.

So do try out these to have variety in your dinner menu. All it takes is an hour or so of resting time, as compared to your chapathi-subzi dinner, that's it! And did I tell you they tasted very nice the next day as well – I just had to heat it in the microwave a few seconds to have piping hot, almost fresh Calzone!

Here's I made them...

Veggie Calzone

Preparation time: ~20 min + ~10 min + resting time

Baking Time: ~25 min

Source: Dough from US Masala

Ingredients:

Whole Wheat Flour – 1 ½ Cups

All Purpose Flour – ½ Cup

Lukewarm Milk – ¾ Cup 

Instant yeast - 1 1/4 tsp  

Olive oil – 1 Tbsp

Sugar – ½ tsp

Salt – ¾ tsp

For the filling: 

Chopped Bellpeppers/Capsicums – 2 cups (I used 3 colored, 1 medium each)

Onion – 1, sliced

Garlic – 2-3 pods, minced

Sweet corn kernels – ½ cup

Tomato – 1 small, ripe but firm

Olive oil – 2 Tbsp

Feta cheese – 3 Tbsp, crumbled (Optional – I used it as I had to finish off some) You may use paneer also

Green chilies – 1-2 chopped fine (Only if you want it spicy)

Pepper powder / Red chili powder – ½ tsp

Tomato ketchup / Marinara sauce – 1 Tbsp

Dried Italian herbs – Oregano/Thyme – 1 tsp

Salt to taste

Mozzarella cheese – ¼ cup, grated

Method:

• Dissolve salt, sugar and yeast in milk.
• Add oil and the flours and mix well
• Knead the dough for 4-5 minutes till soft and elastic
• Smear the dough with some oil, cover with a clean kitchen towel and let rise till double – for an hr to hr and a half

Filling:

• Heat oil in a thick bottomed pan, add garlic, chilies and onions and saute
• Mix in the other veggies and saute till almost cooked – don't overcook as they will get baked again
• Add salt, sauce and sprinkle with pepper /chili powder, herbs and mix well
• Keep aside to cool slightly.

To make the calzone:

• Divide the doubled dough into 4 portions
• One by one, roll each part into a big circle – bigger and thicker than chapathi
• Spread the filling mixture on one half of the circles, leaving a gap of about an inch on the circumference
• Sprinkle the grated cheese evenly over the filling
• Fold the empty part over the filling, to form a semi circle and press the edges
• To make sure they are sealed well, using a fork, press all over the circumference of the semi circle
• Transfer them carefully to a large baking tray
• Brush the top with a little milk, if you want a good color
• Make a couple of slits on each of them to allow the steam to escape while baking
• Let them rest for 15 minutes while you preheat the oven at 200 deg C
• Once preheated, bake the prepared calzone for 12-14 minutes, till the top starts slightly browning
• Allow to cool for 10 minutes, as they will be really hot!
• Cut into half and serve with marinara sauce

Notes:

• Experiment with your favourite veggies and cheese combinations. 

This post is for the Bake-A-Thon event by Champa. These are the other co-bloggers baking with me... 
Champa, Srivalli Jetti, Priya Suresh, Veena Krishna Kumar, Preeti Deo and Jayasri.

Garlic Bread Exotica - Pizza hut style

I love garlic bread. And especially the ones from Pizza hut. And specifically the Garlic Bread exotica they have, loaded with veggies and topped generously with cheese… A generous sprinkle of mixed herbs on top… and may be some chili flakes to add to the heat… and it’s one perfect starter…. Especially to an Italian course.

When I bought the baguette bread last time - well, I wanted to make it myself, but was tempted to buy it when the store smelled of freshly baked bread - a piece of heaven. So when I bought it, I knew I had to make the Garlic Bread Exotica with it. Had all the lovely colored bell peppers/capsicums; and we both love loads of garlic… So the weekend brunch featured this.

It is quite an easy thing to fix - just chop the veggies, make the garlic spread… top with toppings and bake - that’s it! Of course, if you’re a food blogger, u have the additional task of arranging them beautifully and clicking them - in my case, I outsourced it to D, while I prepared the salad :D

So here goes the recipe…

Garlic Bread Exotica

Preparation Time: 10-15 min

Baking Time: ~15 min

Serves: 2 as a meal; 4 as a starter

Ingredients:

Colored bell peppers/Capsicum - 3/4 cup, chopped (I used a mix of green, red and yellow)
Onions - One small, chopped
fresh/frozen corn kernels - 1/4 cup

Cheese - 1/4 -1/3 cup, grated (mozzarella or cheddar)
1 tsp red chili flakes

Salt to taste
A Baguette or French/Italian bread

For Garlic Spread:
Olive oil or Melted Butter - 3 Tbsp, at room temperature
Garlic - 6-8 pods, very finely chopped
Mixed Italian herbs - 1 tsp -  I use thyme and oregano
Coarsely ground pepper - 1/2 tsp (vary acc to taste)
Green chilies - 2, finely chopped (only for an added extra-spice)

Method:

• Preheat oven to 170 deg C
• Line a large baking tray with foil or parchment and set aside
• Heat butter /olive oil on a low flame and add the finely chopped garlic, Italian herbs and green chilies, ground pepper and let it warm and keep aside.
• Cut the baguette into 1" thick slices diagonally
• Mix all the chopped vegetables peppers, corn, onions in a bowl, add salt
• Take each slice of the bread and apply garlic spread with a silicon brush and put a Tbsp of mixed vegetables over it
• Sprinkle red chili flakes and top it with cheese (the more, the merrier ;) )
• Arrange on the prepared baking tray and bake for about 10 minutes and then broil it for 2-3 min until the edges of bread are slightly crisp and the cheese starts melting.
• Have warm as a side with a pasta dish or a pasta salad or a starter for a pizza meal
• Or best, have it as a snack, all by itself :)

Notes:

• Can use tomatoes as well, but I am averse to them :)

This post is for the Bake-A-Thon event by Champa. These are the other co-bloggers baking with me... 
Champa, Srivalli Jetti, Priya Suresh, Veena Krishna Kumar and Preeti Deo.

Chocolate Almond Biscotti

Of late, I’m on the look-out for baking recipes that will not add too many calories to my diet and will last long, that will serve as our tea time / between meal snack. If it stays long, I don’t have to repeat the snack every day till it gets over! Rather alternate it between something else so it is not boring.

Biscotti fit quite well into this - they are not loaded with fat / sugar, nuts if added, make you feel full, last long and quite easy to make.

Biscotti are Italian originated, twice baked biscuits. They are oblong-shaped, made dry and crunchy through cutting the loaf of dough while still hot and fresh from baking, and baked again to make crispy.

This biscotti is loaded with almonds, chocolate chunks and makes it a hearty snack with tea/coffee. It yields quite a big batch - lasted us for more than two weeks, in spite of sending away some for D’s colleagues. But stays fresh all the while, though, so can relish it for longer!

Here’s the recipe…

Chocolate Almond Biscotti

Preparation Time: 15 min

Baking Time: 25 min + ~20 min

Makes:  ~ 25-30 Biscottis

Source: Joy of Baking

Blanched whole almonds - 3/4 cup (110 grams) See Notes for blanching almonds

White sugar -2/3 cup (135 grams)

Eggs - 2 large

Vanilla extract - 1 tsp

Baking Powder - 1tsp

Salt - 1/4 tsp

All purpose flour /Maida - 1 3/4 cups (230 grams)

Semi-sweet or Bittersweet chocolate - 2/3 cup, chopped into bite-sized chunks (can use chocolate chips)

Method:

For the dough

• Preheat oven to 180 degrees C (350 degrees F).
• Toast almonds for 8-10 minutes or until lightly browned and fragrant. Let cool and then chop coarsely. Set aside.
• Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
• In bowl of your electric mixer (or with a hand mixer), beat the sugar and eggs on high speed until thick, pale, and fluffy (about 5 minutes). And beat in the vanilla extract.
• In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt.
• Add to the egg mixture and beat until combined.
• Fold in the chopped almonds and chocolate.

First Bake

• Transfer the dough to a well floured counter and roll into a log shape, about 12 inches (30 cm) long and 3 1/2 inches (9 cm) wide.
• You may have to flour your hands to form the log as the dough is quite sticky.
• Place on your baking sheet and bake for about 25 minutes or until firm to the touch. Remove from oven and let cool on a wire rack for about 10 minutes.

Second Bake

• Reduce oven temperature to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C).  Transfer the log to a cutting board and cut into about 1/2 inch (1.25  cm) slices, on the diagonal.
• Place the biscotti, cut side down, on the baking sheet. Bake for about 8-10 minutes, turn slices over, and bake for another 8-10 minutes or until golden brown.
• Remove from oven and let cool. Store in an airtight container. 

Notes:

• Store bought Blanched Almonds can be used or regular almonds can be blanched at home like this.
• Blanching almonds: Place almonds in boiling water for about 1 minute. Drain and place in ice water to stop further cooking of the almonds. Peel the skin off with your fingers. Bake them in a 350 degree F (180 degree C) oven for about 5-10 minutes, or until almonds are dry, but have no color.

(These lovely pics are courtesy D)

Olive, Cheese and Garlic No-knead Focaccia

Among the breads that I bake, I love focaccia. It is an Italian flat bread, with olive oil and optionally with some toppings. The Italian herbs and garlic as toppings add a nice flavor and taste to the bread, and the olive oil makes it soft. Add cheese and top it with olives and some chives, it becomes a heavenly bread. The no-knead version of this bread, is so easy to put together, without the need for straining your arms by kneading and kneading! Just mix the batter, beat it a few times with a strong spatula and dump it in the baking tin. When risen, top it with your favorite toppings and bake. That’s it!

Well, coming to tins, when I made it, I didn’t have any bread tins or cake tins other than the bundt pan and a few huge cookie sheets. That shouldn’t stop my spirit for baking right? I baked it on the cookie sheet, making an almost circle of about 9” with the dough! And it worked fine. The bread baked up fine and the ‘almost’ circular shape didn’t matter once it was cut.

Here’s how to make it… if you’re scared of baking breads, you must try this first, or my other no-knead focaccia here, to drive off the fear :)

Olives and Cheese Focaccia

Preparation time        : 10-15 min + rising time of about 1 hr

Baking time                 : 35-40 min

Makes             :  one 9” round bread of abt 1 ½ -2” height

Recipe Source : Here, originally from KAF site

Ingredients:

For the batter
All Purpose flour - 1 ½ cups plus 2 Tbsp / 210 grams
Warm water - ¾ cup
Dried thyme (or your favorite dried herb) - generous heaped ½ tsp
Chilli flakes - 1 tsp or to taste
Salt - ¾ tsp
Instant yeast or Active dried yeast - 1 ½ tsp ( I use instant)
Sugar - ¾ tsp
Olive oil - 1 ½ Tbsp plus more for greasing the pan

To mix in
Roasted garlic pods - 1, medium sized (not more, as yeast doesn't love too much garlic, says the KAF site), mashed or chopped fine. I was scared that 3 would be too much, so added just one to the batter and added more later in topping
Cheese - 100 grams or more, cut into ½” cubes (Recipe suggests cheddar, Monterey Jack or flavored cheddar) I used flavored cheddar

For the topping
Olive Oil - 1 ½ tsp
More dried herbs for topping
Basil leaves - a few, I didn’t use this
Chives - 2-3 Tbsp, chopped

Olives - 10-12, pitted and chopped

Garlic - 2 pods, chopped fine

 
Method:

• Grease and line the bottom and sides of a 9'' round tin. Grease again.
• Sift the flour, salt, chili flakes and dried thyme to mix well. Keep aside.
• In a large bowl, take the sugar and the yeast.
• Add the warm water ( If using active dried yeast, you would need to proof it first using the warm water, yeast and sugar, let it stand for about 5-10 minutes till frothy and then proceed with the next step).
• Add water and the oil.  Mix. Tip in the flour mixture.
• Stir with a wooden spoon till all the flour is incorporated. Then beat 20 times with the spoon. The batter will be sticky.
• Mix in the chopped garlic and the cheese cubes.
• Transfer the batter to the greased tin. Push gently with greased hands to cover the entire pan.
• Spread some oil lightly over the surface. Dimple the dough with your fingers.
• Cover with a greased aluminum foil and let rise in a warm place for an hour. The dough will be puffy (not necessarily double the volume) at the end of one hour.
• Towards the end of the rise period, pre-heat oven to 190 degrees C / 375 degrees F.
• Drizzle oil on top. Remove the foil, sprinkle the topping. Distribute the olives evenly over the entire bread
• Bake for 35 -40 minutes or till light golden brown on top.
• The bread will not brown a lot as there is very little sugar in the batter.
• The bottom should sound hollow when tapped. (It should read between 200-210F on an instant read thermometer - I don’t have one…yet)
• Cool on the wire rack in the pan for 10 minutes, then remove from the pan, place on the rack and cool further.
• Cut when warm - the cheesy bits taste awesome when warm

Notes:

• For a pizza like flavor, as Suma has done, ¼ cup of water can be replaced with pizza sauce, but I preferred not to
• The bread was very soft and nice for about a day. The next day it turned out to be a little dry. After warming it a bit, it was again soft
• Tastes best when warm and just about cool… with the cheese bits here and there, and the tang of olives adding to the taste.

No Knead Focaccia with Whole Wheat Flour

The problem for me with baking an a weekday is lack of time. With a full time job, and the need to cook something indigenous for the family, baking generally takes a back seat with no more time or energy left. Especially for yeast breads, where you need to knead and knead and then wait till the dough doubles, shape it and again wait for the second rise, it is almost impossible for me to bake on weekday, unless I’m planning to stay awake for most of the night!

Since weekends are busier with a lot more things to do and places to go and other hobbies to spend time for, it would make me wait for that weekend over which I’m home for most part of the day, with no guests and with enough time and energy and many more conditions to be met before I actually bake! For people like me, there are these no-knead bread recipes that work equally weel, with less than half the time and almost no energy required.

Got this from Champa’s Versatile Kitchen (again! Well, I can’t still take risk otherwise!). Made this one evening after work and it required almost no special preparation or lengthy process. A simple ‘Measure and mix the ingredients - wait for the rise - bake’ formula really helps me try out more of baking often, without having to plan and wait for a suitable day to bake...

Focaccia had been something I wanted to try for a long time and I was happy I tried it. Especially since it uses more of whole wheat flour, this big bread was polished off quickly, without any guilt. I’m so happy that even the in-laws have started loving Italian flavors (first pastas and now this!) and that makes it easy for me!!

Thank you Champa for the nice easy-breezy recipe...

No Knead, Whole wheat Foccacia

Preparation time : 20 min + rising time + 10 minutes

Baking time : 20 min

Makes : ~15-20

Ingredients:

All purpose flour - 1 ½ cups

Whole wheat flour - 2 cups - 2 Tbsp

Vital Wheat Gluten - 2 Tbsp (Not in original recipe, I added)

Warm water - 1 ½ cups

Olive oil - 3 Tbsp

Salt - 1 ½ tsp

Sugar - ½ tsp (I added this; not in original recipe)

Instant yeast - 2 ¼ tsp

Chili flakes - 1 Tbsp - I used red chili powder since I didn’t have enough

Fresh ground pepper - ¼ tsp

For Topping:

Olive oil - 1-2 Tbsp

Mixed Italian herbs - 1 Tbsp

Crushed chilli flakes - 1 - 2 tsp

Salt - to taste

Black pepper powder - to taste

Method:

• Grease a 9x13 pan or equivalent with some olive oil and set aside. I used a 10” round pan

• Mix APF, WWF and gluten if using and keep aside

• In a large bowl, add warm water and sugar and mix

• Add in the yeast and let it proof for 5 minutes. If the yeast does not create bubbles, then it is bad

• Once the yeast proofs, add olive oil, chili flakes/powder, pepper powder and salt

• Mix in the flours with a wooden spoon; mix thoroughly so that there are no lumps of flour

• This is a sticky dough, but since you don’t have to knead, it does not matter.

• Grease you hands with some oil and pat the dough on to the prepared pan evenly, into about an inch thickness

• Keep it covered in a warm place to double.

• In about an hour, it doubles in volume

• Pre heat the oven to 190 deg C or 375 F

• By then, heat the olive oil for topping slightly and add the herbs, salt and clili flakes and/or pepper powder

• Make dimples in the risen dough with your index finger and drizzle the olive oil mixture all over

• Bake in the pre heated oven for about 35 minutes - mine took about 32 minutes, till, as Champa says, a golden crust is formed

• Take it out of the oven and in about 2-3 min, take it out of the pan, and cool over a wire mesh

• Slice when warm - mine crumbled a bit when I waited for too long...

• Serve warm as is or with a bowl of soup later

Notes:

• I felt the water/liquid can be increased a bit, when using WWF. May be a couple of TBSP more.

• Champa says it crumbles when sliced hot, but mine was the other way round - it crumbled after it was cool, where as when still warm I got better pieces

Spinach Pasta - Pasta in Green Sauce!

Can you believe I got the idea of this recipe when in dream? Yeah! I was sleeping, may be semi conscious and I suddenly got this idea of a green pasta.... made of palak.... And trust me I made the dish step by step with a full fledged imaginary recipe in the dream itself! And I kind of had the taste too.... I was surprised for sure when I woke up, and I definitely wanted to give it a try. Given my increasing passion for pasta of late, I was desperate to try out my own recipe! And I got a chance to make it one evening, even after a tiring day at work. Started out on the same recipe that I had used in my dream, and well, it did come out well, as expected (from the dream!). And folks at home also liked it, given their liking to anything with palak in general....

Do try it out and let me know how you like it....

Pasta in Spinach Sauce

Preparation time : 10 min Cooking time : 15 min Serves : 4 Ingredients: Macaroni Pasta - 200 gms, I used elbows Spinach/Palak - 2 medium sized bunches Onions - 1 medium sized, chopped (optional - I omitted) Green chilies - 1, slit (optional) Garlic - 6-8 flakes (optional) Olive oil - 3 tsp (or any other oil) Butter - 3 tsp Milk - 250 ml All purpose flour - 2 tsp Dried Italian Herbs / Thyme / Oregano - 1 tsp Pepper powder - 1 ½ tsp, adjust acc to taste Salt - ½ tsp or as per taste Garlic paste - ½ tsp Coriander leaves - 1 Tbsp, chopped  (optional) Method: • Cook pasta for 5 minutes or till cooked, in 4-5 glasses of boiling water, adding ¼ tsp of salt and a few drops of olive oil • Drain the water completely and wash the pasta with plenty of running cold water, keep aside for draining • Pick and wash palsk, cook it in a teaspoon of oil till it is done. The color starts turning dark when done. Cool it slightly and then make a fine puree. • Heat 1 Tsp of oil in a pan and sauté the onion with green chilly and garlic, till they are cooked but slightly crunchy. Add garlic paste (optional). • Add the palak puree and bring to a gentle boil • In another pan, add butter and flour and sauté well till the flour starts to turn brown and butter starts separating out of flour • Let it cool for 5-10 minutes • Add half of the milk and mix the flour thoroughly, not letting lumps to form. If there are any lumps, lend it in a blender or with hand • Bring this to gentle boil. The white sauce starts thickening. • When boiling, add the palak mixture, dried herbs, pepper powder and salt and continue stirring. Add remaining milk and water to adjust consistency to be thinner than what you require • After a couple of minutes of boiling, add pasta and mix gently, not to break the pastas • Add shredded cheese and mix well • If the pasta appears to be too thick, add a little more boiled water • Garnish with more dried herbs, and serve hot. Tips n Tricks: • Do not overcook the vegetable, let it be slightly crispy • I used Bambino macaroni (elbows) first time. Next time I replaced it will MTR, but found the latter too delicate. Most of the elbows were broken when cooked. My choice is bambino Variations: • Onion, garlic and ginger garlic paste can be omitted - in fact, I had not used it in my version

Pasta in White Sauce

Ever since I had visited an Italian restaurant a few years ago, I had become a fan of pasta in white sauce. And later when I tried other varieties of pasta in red sauce, I was not so impressed. May be my choice was bad; but pasta in white creamy sauce was something I was drooling for. Sometime ago, when I ordered the newly introduced pasta in WS in Dominos, Dee hesitatingly tasted it first, and then later, I had to literally stop him from finishing it off, and demand my share! And finally, when leaving from there, he dropped in to their kitchen and complimented the cook for the wonderful pasta!

Whew! He too had fallen for it..... Now of course I had to learn how to prepare it myself, seeing him like it so much. The plain Bambino Macaroni that I had bought was just lying in the kitchen shelf for a few weeks. And one fine day, I decided to give it a try and browsed through some sites and as always, finally came up with my modifications and set out to prepare it.

He too got into the kitchen to help me with my new venture. He asked me at least 3 times if I am sure that I can make the white sauce myself, or should he see if it can be bought! Yeah, he hadn’t guessed how simple it was to make the white sauce. And as we started preparing, even in laws were curious and peeped into the kitchen often ;)

It was ready in just a few minutes, and when served, of course, Dee who knew about it, started licking his plate even before it was served for others. In laws too loved it, and believe me or not, both MIL and FIL asked for a second helping! After finishing it off with second helpings for everyone, when I settled down with my plate, I realized how good it was, indeed! It was very close to the taste at Dominos!

The next time I prepared it at mom’s place too, it was the same story. Even my grandma became a fan of it, and the maid, who praised it for more than 3-4 times, finally told my mom, “Akka, you too learn how to make this, from your daughter, and prepare it often!”

Pasta in White Sauce

Preparation time : 10 min Cooking time : 15 min Serves : 5-6 Ingredients: Macaroni Pasta - 200 gms, I used elbows Capsicums - 1, cut into thin pieces Onions - 1 medium sized, chopped (optional - I omitted) Carrot - 2 medium sized, chopped into thin pieces French beans - 10-12, slit and chopped into thin pieces Green chilies - 1, slit (optional) Garlic - 6-8 flakes Olive oil - 3 tsp (or any other oil) Butter - 3 tsp Milk - 350 ml All purpose flour - 1 Tbsp Mixed Italian herbs/ Oregano / Thyme - 1 tsp Pepper powder - 1 ½ tsp, adjust acc to taste Salt - ½ tsp or as per taste Ginger Garlic paste - ½ tsp Grated cheese - 1 Tbsp Method: • Cook pasta for 5 minutes or till cooked, in 4-5 glasses of boiling water, adding ¼ tsp of salt and a few drops of olive oil • Drain the water completely and wash the pasta with plenty of running cold water, keep aside for draining • Heat 1 Tsp of oil in a pan and sauté the cut vegetables with green chilly and garlic, till they are cooked but slightly crunchy • In another pan, add butter and flour and sauté well till the flour starts to turn brown and butter starts separating out of flour • Let it cool for 5-10 minutes • Add half of the milk and mix the flour thoroughly, not letting lumps to form. If there are any lumps, lend it in a blender or with hand • Bring this to gentle boil. The white sauce starts thickening. • When boiling, add the sautéed vegetables, dried herbs, pepper powder and salt and continue stirring. Add remaining milk and water to adjust consistency to be thinner than what you require • After a couple of minutes of boiling, add pasta and mix gently, not to break the pastas • Mix in shredded cheese and mix well • If the pasta appears to be too thick, add a little more boiled milk • Garnish with more dried herbs, and serve hot. Tips n Tricks: • Do not overcook the vegetable, let it be slightly crispy • I used Bambino macaroni (elbows) first time. Next time I replaced it will MTR, but found the latter too delicate. Most of the elbows were broken when cooked. My choice is bambino Variations: • Onion, garlic and ginger garlic paste can be omitted - in fact, I had not used it in my version

P.S. - This dish is participating in the event 'Pasta Party' hosted by Jyoti of http://panchpakwan.blogspot.com/