Veg. Pasta with White Sauce

Starting off with my personal favorite!

Sorry....No acknowledgements to mom, grand-mom, m-i-l etc. This one comes directly from common sense and two of the five basic senses - the sense of smell & the sense of taste. Oh...taste reminds me....one big thank-you to Ruchi for the idea of using corn flour to thicken the sauce and hence reducing the cheese content.

Ingredients:

1. Pasta (Macaroni/Penne) - 125 g
2. Milk - 250 ml
3. Assorted Veggies - 250 g (You may use some or all of the following or maybe add your own, based on your choice and availability of veggies. Most of these are available at Namdhari's):
• Broccoli (small florets)
• Red, Yellow and Green Capsicum (cut into 1/2 cm X 2 cm strips)
• Baby Corn (cut into 2cm long strips)
• Corn Kernels
• Black Olives (gutted and sliced)
• Mushrooms - boiled, cleaned and cut into 2cm long strips (stalk included)
• Italian Basil - 10 leaves
4. Fresh cream (I use Amul tetra pack) - 100 ml
5. Cheese cubes (I use Britannia) - 1
6. Corn Flour - 2-3 tsp. dissolved in 50 ml of cold water
7. Olive Oil - 1 tbsp.
8. Dry Italian Seasoning (I use Keya) - 1 tsp.
9. Salt - as per taste.

Procedure to cook the pasta:

1. Boil 500 ml water in a vessel.
2. To the boiling water add pasta and 1 tsp. of salt
3. Allow to cook on a low/medium flame.
4. While this is cooking, get the sauce ready  (see below for procedure), but keep an eye on this so that it does not get overcooked
5.  After it is cooked, drain the water completely.

Procedure for the sauce:

1. Heat Olive Oil in a pan.
2. Add all the veggies and basil leaves and sauté them for 2 minutes on a medium flame.

 

Pic 1: The sautéed veggies

1.  Add the milk and allow to cook on a low flame. Keep stirring occasionally.There is no need to lid it.
2.  When the milk starts boiling, test if the veggies are tender. Add salt as per taste and stir well.
3.  Add the dissolved corn flour slowly to the boiling mixture and stir. The sauce should thicken.
4.  Add 100 ml of fresh cream and mix well.

Pic 2: Sauce is ready

1.  Add the cooked pasta and mix it so that the sauce blends well with the pasta.
2.  Add the dry Italian seasoning and mix lightly. Remove from flame.
3.  Grate the cheese cube and sprinkle on top and serve.

Pic 3: Finallly...Yummmmmm...!!!




Tips and Tricks:

The trick:
Make sure you time the cooking of the pasta and the sauce in such a way that both are ready at the same time. That is the ideal way of making pasta.
The tips:
Any delay in making the sauce might result in the pasta getting overcooked. In such an event, drain the hot water from the cooked pasta and allow it to cool under fan.
If pasta is taking more time to cook, turn off the flame under the sauce and wait for the pasta to cook.
Or, pre-cook the pasta on the previous day, drain off the water completely and refrigerate it. Just make the sauce on the d-day and add this pre-cooked pasta...tastes equally good,

Variations:
1. Do not worry if any of the veggies or basil leaves are not available. Add your choice of vegetables. For a more plain version, you may use French beans, carrots etc. For a more exotic version, please experiment and let me know.
2. You may replace olive oil with butter or any other cooking oil.
3. I like to use Penne or Macaroni (although the pic shows Fusili ;-)) because the sauce seeps into the holes and tastes better. You may use any other variety of pasta too.

Please add a comment to this blog if u try this recipe and let me know how it turned out for you.