There is something about pasta that i love, and so far, Cooking pasta has been my pleasure. There's Pasta at my home atleast once a week, and i consider this 'Often' considering I belong to an Indian Household. My husband and I love pasta.. so the frequency.
Im sharing with you, today, 3 kindsa sauce's, all of which are my favourite.. but my husband particularly doesnt like the pesto pasta with basil in it. But for me, thas my favourite...
So Here goes the 1st.
i. Its the Tomato and Mushroom sauce: Everything here remains the same as in the basic tomato pesto, but the slight twist is the saute'ed mushrooms in this sauce. Believe me, its a different flavour altogether.
So you mix in the tomatoes, garlic and mushroom(stalks preferred, keep the heads for the pasta), and saute in olive oil. So in your blender you grind all of these, slowly, with each turn, you add in a little olive oil, You could add in a few herbs if you like.
So in olive oil, you saute sum garlic, chilli flakes pour this sauce, add the pasta and sauted veggies(Prawns are a great alternative) and bake it immediately or else, cook it on the hob.
ii. Basil Pesto: You lightly toss the garlic in olive oil.. apart from this you will need 2 handsful of Basil,(you could make that one, incase you are not a basil fan), few spinach leaves + 2 chillies (depends on your spice quotient) blanched, garlic, lotsa walnuts(i love walnuts). So you grind all of these in the blender, again, keep tipping in the Olive oil. This anyways will take a long time to become a considerably smooth mix, cause its basically only the greens in there. Please dont add water, let the olive oil help it blend.
This is great with spaghetti, (tho i made it with farfalle)
Keep the pasta ready. In some butter, tip in the sauce above, add salt (add it before the spaghetti, its easier to mix) then throw in the spaghetti and let it cook. Some pinenuts will add in the crunch (I dont find it easily in India, so i havent added them)
P.S : keep this simple.. dont add any veggies. Bake it with a lil cheese on top if you like
iii. Browned Onion and Basil Sauce: This is something i tried one morning.
a. One onion sliced lengthwise, browned lightly and separately
b. saute half tomato, garlic and basil
Grind all the above together, again you slowly keep tipping in the olive oil as you grind it.
In a pan with some butter, throw in some cherry tomatoes and crushed pepper(little) and let the cherry tomatoes soak in the butter. Add the sauce and pasta. For an extra flavor, add in some chopped pieces of garlic, some crushed pepper again and salt. Top it with cheese and bake.
PS. if you are baking a pasta, I will suggest you to always add in pieces of garlic in the end before baking. They release a heavenly aroma when they get baked along with the cheese and pasta.
