Pasta Indian Style (or, Spicy Pasta)
Here is a recipe of Indianized spicy version of pasta that I found after some experimentation. It made my (frequent) otherwise bland pasta meals quite interesting!
Besides spaghetti and pasta sauce, all other items in the ingredients list
are basically add-ons. You can either skip or change the amount to adjust the level of spiciness according to your taste.
Ingredients:
Spaghetti, pasta sauce (Prefer RAGU traditional/
mushroom/ garlic, onion --
pepper jalapeno flavor are not good), alfredo (Classico Alfredo is quite good), mushrooms (Cremini mushrooms are preferable), Indian curry powder, garam masala, cumin seeds, garlic, onion, black salt, regular white salt and vegetable oil.
Quantities:
This will make pasta for two-three people.
- Half packet spaghetti -- 8oz
- 3/4 bottle spaghetti sauce (red) -- 10 oz
- 4 tablespoons alfredo
- 10 - 15 medium size mushrooms
- 1/3 teaspoonful curry powder
- 1/8 teaspoon gram masala (that is, just a hint of it. Otherwise, I find the flavor of garam masala too strong.)
- 1 - 2 (medium size) cloves of garlic
- 1/2 - 1 medium size onion
- 1/2 teaspoonful white salt
- 1/2 - 1 tablespoonful oil
- 1/8 teaspoonful black salt
- about 15-20 grains of cumin seeds
- 1/8 teaspoonful red chili powder (!)
Method:
Prepare pasta and the sauce simultaneously.
Pasta:
Put water in a pan for heating. Add (regular white) salt, and sliced
mushrooms to the water in the beginning itself (the idea is to flavor the
water...). Once the water comes to a boil, add pasta, and cook just
until tender. Leave on the stove for another 2-3 minutes and then
drain the water. (Wash with cold water afterwards if you usually do so. I prefer warm pasta. So, I don't.)
Sauce:
Heat oil along with cumin seeds in in a fry-pan -- the heat needs to be kept low so as to not burn the seeds! Once the seeds become brownish, add finely chopped
garlic and chopped onion and fry until brown (put garlic a little bit
earlier than onion). Then add curry powder, garam masala, black salt and
chili powder. Stir for about 2 minutes at low heat. Now add the
pasta sauce and alfredo. Keep stirring occasionally, at medium-low
heat until the sauce is cooked well (5-10 minutes usually). A lot of bubbles and the color becoming lighter is the sign that the sauce is done.
Finally, of course, add sauce to pasta and mix well. Garnishing with capers or green olives once in a while is an excellent variation.