Confessions of a Foodie - Three Pepper Pasta

We Indians have been increasingly spending a lot on savouries, from other countries, be it Thai, Italian, Chinese, American, Mexican. It's almost always a delight to try out other cuisines, and for foodies, like me, who crave for good food, the hunt for something or the other to satisfy my taste buds has always been on. I have always been on the forefront to eat things, and if it is something that I cook and then eat, there’s nothing better than that. While I have been trying a lot of things in the Indian cuisine, and I’ve been doing that for a long time. I think if I say that I have been cooking (if it includes doing small things on the cooktop, like making tea), since I was say 12 or 13 years old, it won’t be an exaggeration. Much of the credit goes to my mother for encouraging me to cook, and again, ensuring that I am safe while I am in the kitchen. More or less, it’s been a good experience, though, I am not that good with turmeric powder, other than that, almost all other essential stuff like salt, sugar and chilli etc., almost always turn out to be in perfect proportion (barring a few instances).

Though, it doesn’t always turn out to be a good experience, trying to cook stuff that I don’t know much, by just following a few recipes off the internet or the food programmes, or recipes published somewhere else, so, I tend to add a pinch of my own twist to the recipe, wherever I feel necessary to do so, since many a times, I feel that things like cooking time in these recipes is a way lot less than what it actually needs. More than that, Cooking is more of experience driven than a text driven one. It is more of an art than being a work. You have to be creative and thoughtful when cooking for pleasure, or it will turn out to be a chore, which, almost no one likes.

Pasta, a dish thought to have originated in Italy, has increasingly been making way into the Indian palette, thanks to the fast growth of fast food chains and Pizza joints like Dominos, Pizzahut, Slice of Italy, etc. to name a few.  So, this was one when I decided to cook up something different at home. It had to be Pasta. I prepared the stuff, tasted it, and for whatever reasons, I liked it.

So, guys, lets catch up with the Three Pepper Pasta-My Style

THREE PEPPER PASTA

Ingredients (for 4 persons)
Preparation time (1 hour)

Ofcourse, Pasta (Your choice, I chose Chifferi Rigati pasta) - 200 grams

Cheese - 100 grams (I chose to go with Processed Cheese Cubes)

Refined Flour (Maida) - one cup

Milk - 400ml
Water - to cook (boil) the pasta.

Veggies-

     Some veggies like Capsicums (Green, Yellow and Red) - 1 each

     French Beans - 100 grams

     Onions - 2 medium

     Garlic - 2-3 cloves

     Ginger - 1 inch piece

     Tomatoes - 2 medium

     Cabbage - 100 grams (We will need some undamaged (whole) layers for serving, and some more cabbage, finely chopped for pasta)

Salted Butter - 100 grams

Clarified butter (Ghee) - 1 tbsp

Salt - to taste

Seasoning (Oregano, Chilli Flakes, Thai Seasoning)

Preparations

First and foremost thing, the Pasta. As directed on the packet the pasta is to be boiled in water for a while, around 7-8 minutes. Once you have added the pasta in the boiling water, add half a teaspoon of salt to the boiling water. This enables the pasta to take in the salty taste while it is boiling. Doing this greatly enhances the flavour of your pasta. While your pasta is boiling, you can star chopping down the vegetables.  An important part of pasta is made up of fresh vegetables. Cut all three capsicums into square pieces. Once the capsicums are diced, move it aside and take up the onions. (Tip: If you are new to the kitchen, let me warn you in advance, chopping onions will make you cry, quite literally. So, while you are at it and need to chop onions, you can use my trick. Before, you begin chopping the onions, you can peel it off, and cut it into two halves and dip the halves in water for a while, say around 5 minutes. This will make sure that the nasty onion isn't able to make you cry while it is being chopped.)

The three peppers.

All the ingredients at one place.

It's a go!

Cabbages, finely chopped.

Onions, halved and dipped in water.

French Beans, cut in 1.5 inch pieces.

Ginger

Capsicums

Finely chopped onions

Tomatoes

All the veggies, ready.

So, now you know what to do with the onions. Dip it in the water, let it cry for a while in the water while you happily cut the French beans into ~1.5 inch pieces. By now, your pasta might have got boiled properly. To make sure, take out a pasta from the pan, and let it cool down for a while, and then try pressing it between your index finger and thumb. If it feels like made of rubber (i.e. bounces back and retains its shape, in case of tubular shaped pastas like macaroni, or penne, or this Chifferi Rigati), it's fine enough. Now, take a bite of your pasta, if it's cooked uniformly, you won't find any dryness inside. If there is dryness, cook for a few more minutes, else take it off the flame, and drain out the water. Congratulations, your pasta is boiled to be cooked further. The only things now remaining are tomatoes, that are to be cut into 8 pieces each, onions, which we had halved is to be finely chopped in long pieces and the piece of ginger, that is to be finely cut into long pieces, that will enhance the taste of the pasta. The garlic cloves are to be grounded well.

Now we've done most of the things, lets move on to preparing the Pasta base (or Pasta Sauce). Take a frying pan, preferably with a heavy base. Add the clarified butter, 1 tbsp. and let it heat up for a while. Once the clarified butter melts, and heats up considerably, add 1 cup refined flour, and now roast it for a while. Make sure that it doesn't turn brown, and doesn't form lumps. After a while, just as it starts turning brown, take it off the flame, and let it cool down for a while. Now your pan is empty. Add the milk, all of it, and let it boil for a while. Once the milk boils add the roasted flour and mix it well, again making sure that lumps don't form. And now add the grounded garlic cloves. Cook for around 5 minutes.  Now add grated cheese. 3 cubes will do pretty well, you can add more if you want.  Each cube is approximately 25 grams. Once you have added the cheese, cook this for a few more minutes, until the cheese melts.  If you somehow feel like the consistency of the sauce has become too thick, add some more milk, and cook it all for a while. Now add some salt. Half a teaspoon would do. Don't add it too much, just a bit less than what you usually like to have. Now add some seasoning, oregano, chilli flakes to the mixture and mix it well, an remove from the flame, into a bowl. You might want to clean up the frying pan, or kadahi you're using, as the next step will need a clean one or the stuff will stick in the pan. (Tip: If even after trying too hard to make sure that no lumps form, you find lumps in your pasta sauce, you can take out the mixture, off the pan, let it cool for a while, and then make it go through a food processor or a blender, and everything will be sorted out. However this needs to be done before you have added any spices.)

Checking the Pasta

Grated Cheese

Roasting the flour

Checking consistency of the pasta sauce

Adding the grated cheese to the pasta sauce

Adding spices to the pasta sauce (oregano, Thai seasoning, chilli flakes)

In a clean frying pan or kadahi, add 50 grams of salted butter, and let it melt properly. Now start adding vegetables, begin with the finely chopped ginger, then add finely chopped onions, fry both till the onions start turning golden brown. Now start adding the remaining vegetables, French beans, fry it for a while, then add the capsicums, fry it all and finally tomatoes, and then the finely chopped cabbages. Make sure that the veggies are not cooked too much, just cook them enough so that when you have them, it doesn't feel like having raw veggies. Doing this will retain crunchiness in the capsicums and beans, and will taste good. Once all of it is added, fry for around 2 minutes, and then remove all the vegetables from the flame, on to a plate. Again put the frying pan on flame, add another 25 grams of butter (yes, salted butter), let it melt and then add the boiled pastas, and fry it all for a while (doing this for a minute or two will do). This is to provide a salty flavour to the pasta, and frying it in butter gives it a peculiar taste. Now add all the vegetables, some more grated cheese, 2 cubes will be good enough, cook all of it for a while, and then add some more salt to the pasta and vegetables. This one looks way colourful. One it's time to add the white pasta sauce we prepared a while ago. Add all the sauce to the Pasta, and the veggies, and mix all of it well for a while. Take it off the flame and your three pepper pasta is ready.

Crushed garlic cloves

Frying the crushed garlic cloves and chopped ginger in melt butter.

Chopped onions added to the butter, to be fried.

Adding rest of the vegetables to be fried.

All the vegetables fried and ready to be taken off the flame.

Fried vegetables off the flame.

Frying the boiled pasta in butter for a while.

Add the fried vegetables to the pasta to be cooked.

Add the pasta sauce to the mixture after cooking the pasta and the vegetables for a while.

The Pasta is ready to be served hot.

Serving

You can serve it in traditional way, in plates sprinkled with seasoning like oregano, chilli flakes, Thai seasoning and some more grated cheese, or in a different way, using the cabbage layer as a bowl to contain the pasta, again sprinkled with seasoning, grated cheese and mint leaves. Enjoy it hot.

Plating the pasta, in a plate garnished with sliced capsicums, grated cheese, seasoning, and mint leaves.

Plating the pasta, in a plate garnished with sliced capsicums, grated cheese, seasoning, and mint leaves.

Plating the pasta, in a plate garnished with sliced capsicums, grated cheese, seasoning, and mint leaves.

Serving the pasta, in a whole layer of cabbage garnished with sliced capsicums, grated cheese, seasoning, and mint leaves.

Okay, now since you have spent around an hour and a half in the kitchen, it somewhat appears to be like been hit by a storm. Do make sure that you clean up the mess before your mum or your wife comes and finds out the mess you've created in the kitchen. Don't blame me afterwards! As for the pasta and its ingredients, you are free to experiment with veggies, and other ingredients, like if you could get your hands on olives, black and green, you can add those. Then, you can choose to add other ingredients such as exotic herbs like thyme, rosemary, basil, or other exotic veggies like Zuccini among others. Bring in your own twist, afterall cooking is all about experimenting. Do let me know how did you find the recipe, if you prepared it at home.