A Pasta Post

Many things inspire me. But very feebly! I mean, I always stop to admire sunsets and full moons and all things pretty, but I don’t usually do anything about it. Not that there is much you can do about a sunset anyway..but that’s beside the point. I take a photo and put it in my archives for use later on. “Later on” seldom arrives. But I ALWAYS take the photo.

Recently, I was very highly inspired by a few extremely pretty looking tomatoes. I couldn’t stop admiring them at the store, much to my co-shopper’s annoyance! I proceeded to buy a few, bring them home and then went crazy taking photos. I am sure the tomatoes were a little taken aback in the beginning but by the end even they looked exasperated. I could almost hear one of them asking me to “get a life” and I was very sad to see one roll down and fall on the floor out of frustration (We don’t discuss boring things like gravity on this blog).

At this critical moment, my aforementioned co-shopper came into the room and asked that all important question – “what should we do about dinner”. We debated the point for a while, to qualify as responsible East Indians and decided on Pasta. Red sauce pasta. I refuse to call it Arabiata because I don’t think it’s got anything to do with Arabia!

It usually takes a maximum of 30 minutes to make pasta, 15 out of which is spent day dreaming. It is easy and simple and almost always comes out nice. I am sure you already know the recipe, but I have pictures and so I will give it to you again.. and call it MY version ;-)

Since it is red sauce pasta and we can’t put blood in it, we use tomatoes. If you are nice, you will blanch the tomatoes and take the peels off and puree them. I couldn’t take the emotional pressure of killing the pretty tomatoes, step by step like this, so I just put them in the blender, peel and seeds intact. Roughage is good for digestion!!

Now I like lots of veggies in MY pasta, so I chopped beans, carrots, green, red and yellow bell peppers and mushrooms. I also add babycorn, sweet corn and even baked beans sometimes. I like to blanch the beans and carrots (and babycorn if I am adding it), fry the mushrooms with a little oil and I leave the capsicums raw.

In a little olive oil or butter, fry chopped onions till they are translucent, add a little chopped garlic and then add the tomato puree. Add salt, pepper and oregano. I always add a little ketchup to it, makes it more…interesting, shall we say? Let the sauce bubble away for a while and then add the blanched vegetables. I add the fried mushrooms and the capsicums last. Add the boiled pasta, mix well, grate some cheese on top and that’s your pasta done! Oh sorry, MY version of the pasta done!!

Now, you can try it, take pictures of the pasta, and post the same on your blog and call it your version!!