Fast to cook, good to eat!
As I had mentioned earlier I dislike spending long hours in the kitchen. Yet Pasta is something I just can’t resist. And I just hate the instant pasta available at the supermarket. So well, the only option was to make it at home but as quickly as possible.
I took a large pan and poured 2 liters of water into it. Placed it on the gas and covered it with a lid. Now while I was waiting for the water to boil I was checking out where I had kept the pasta. Finally I found it in one of the shelves.
Anyway I just emptied the 250 gm packet of pasta into the water. A pinch of salt and some olive oil and I let it cook. It would take 12 minutes. Meanwhile I washed 12 red tomatoes and put it to boil in another medium sized pan. That would take 5 minutes to boil. Took out chilled water from the freezer and placed it in a bowl to blanch the tomatoes. 2 onions to chop! Well took hardly 5 minutes. Pasta looks done. Just prodded with a fork! Hmm well its cooked. A little more and it would have gone all mushy.
Drained the pasta in a colander and emptied it into a nice glass serving bowl. Tossed some olive oil, freshly ground black pepper, salt, chilly flakes and fresh basil leaves. Oops! No basil leaves in the house. Well, I would make do with dried basil leaves
Next was to place the same pan again and add some more olive oil and chopped onions. While the onions turned pink, I blanched the tomatoes in cold water and crushed it with a chopper. Took this and added it to the onions. Sprinkled some more pepper and chilly flakes! And of course salt!
The gravy looked deliciously red! After this I just emptied the pasta from the serving bowl into the pan of tomato gravy. Mixed it well…Pasta ready!
And back into the serving bowl again. Sprinkled grated cheddar cheese and my pasta was ready to eat.
Here goes my speedy pasta:
1 packet of raw penne or elbow pasta approx 250 gms
12 red large ripe tomatoes to make tomato puree*
Fresh basil leaves -12 (or 1 tspn of dried basil available at all supermarkets)
Ground black pepper- 1 tspn
1 ½ tspn chilly flakes
2 onions chopped
Olive oil- 12 tspns or butter
Water to cook pasta
Cheese to sprinkle (optional)
Method:
Collect all the above ingredients. Switch on the gas and place a large pan with around 2 litres of water. When the water starts to boil, empty the pasta into it. Add ½ tspn salt and 1 tspn olive oil.
Cook until the pasta is just about cooked. If you prod it with a fork you will know if the pasta is cooked.
Drain the pasta in a colander and transfer it to a serving bowl.
Add ½ tspn pepper powder, ½ tspn dried basil or 12 fresh basil leaves, ½ tspn chilly flakes,1 tspn olive oil and salt to taste.
Keep this aside.
Take the same pan and place it on the gas again. Add the remaining olive oil to it.
Add chopped onion and sauté. Do not brown. When onion is slightly pink, add tomato puree and allow it to boil.
Add remaining basil, pepper, chilly flakes and salt to taste.
After around 5 minutes add the cooked pasta to the tomato gravy,
Mix well and empty contents back into the serving bowl.
Decorate with grated cheddar cheese.
This dish is very simple to make. While the pasta cooks which takes approx around 15 minutes you can blanch the tomatoes for the puree and chop the onions. The whole cooking process can be completed in half an hour.
You can make this pasta more nutritious by adding chopped bell peppers of different colours like yellow/red and some steamed broccoli florets.
*Tomato puree-
Method:
Take tomatoes in a pan. Add 1 cup of water and boil for a couple of minutes. Switch off the gas and transfer tomatoes into a dish with ice cold water. Peel off the skin and grind tomatoes into a puree. You can use a chopper to crush the tomatoes.
