Pasta Indian Style (or Spicy Pasta)
I am addicted to Indian food.
I felt the need to do something to make my
repetitive bland pasta meals more interesting.
After some experimentation, here is what I found --- a recipe for pasta that is acceptably spicy and still fast to cook.
Besides spaghetti and sauce, all listed items in the ingredients list
are basically "add-on"s. And, so you can either skip them (if you
can't find them in your locality, for example), or change the amount
to adjust the level of spiciness according to your taste. However, I
recommend to use the listed quantities for start.
Ingredients:
Spaghetti, pasta sauce (Prefer RAGU traditional/
mushroom/ garlic, onion --
avoid pepper jalapeno flavor--), alfredo (Classico Alfredo is
good), mushrooms (Cremini mushrooms are preferable over White), 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 of spaghetti -- 8oz
- 3/4 bottle spaghetti sauce (red) -- 10 oz
- 4 tablespoons alfredo
- 10 - 15 medium size mushrooms
- 1/3 teaspoonful of curry powder
- 1/8 teaspoon of gram masaala (that is, just a hint
of it, for too much will result in a strong garam masala taste)
- 1 - 2 (medium size) cloves of garlic
- 1/2 - 1 medium size onion
- 1/2 teaspoonful of white salt
- 1/2 - 1 tablespoonful of oil
- 1/8 teaspoonful of red chili powder -- if you like
- 1/8 teaspoonful of black salt
- about 15-20 grains of cumin seeds
Method:
Remember to prepare pasta and its sauce simultaneously.
Pasta:
Put water in a pan for heating. Add (regular white) salt, and sliced
mushrooms to it 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 if you like.)
Sauce:
Heat oil in a fry-pan with cumin seeds in it (be careful to not
burn the seeds!). Once the seeds get brownish, add finely chopped
garlic and chopped onion, and fry until brown (put garlic a little bit
earlier than onion). Add curry powder, garam masaala, black salt and
chili powder, and 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. The sign that the sauce is
done is that you'll a lot of bubbles, and the sauce will look lighter
in color.
Finally, of course, add sauce to pasta and mix them.
Garnish with capers or green olives, if you like.