Indian Pasta Penne Style

Pasta! When I heard the word for the first time when I was small it sounded interesting but I never really got the opportunity to taste the dish at that point of time. I was busy with my studies and my Mom was not well verse or acquainted with cooking Italian cuisine. The primary reason was that there was no Italian restaurant in the locality where I was born and brought up (in a small quaint town called Ponda in Goa). If this was not the case then I would have surely eaten it much earlier as we as a family liked trying out different kinds of cuisines at various joints.

My hubby was not too fond of pasta and always tried to escape it some way or another.  The simplest escape trick being he used to say “I will just taste it”. In other words he will just have a spoon and I have to finish the entire dish on my own (short and simple). We also never ordered the dish in the restaurant as when we read the ingredients plus sauces in the preparations of various kinds of Pasta it did not sound very appealing.

Once it so happened that we landed up at Vijay’s aunt’s (Kala Mave’s) place to give her a surprise and she happened to prepare pasta on that occasion. We both liked it so much that we became a regular fan of it. I am putting down the recipe borrowed from her. The credit goes to her. This pasta has an Indo-Italian taste, style and flavor to it and will suit our palate.

Ingredients

4 -5 tbsp oil

5 onions finely chopped

3 tomatoes finely chopped

8 garlic pieces

1 tsp of ginger paste

1 ½ tsp red chili powder

2 tbsp tomato ketchup

1 tsp Garam masala powder

250g boiled pasta

Salt to taste

Method:

1. Heat oil and onions, garlic and ginger. Fry till onions become translucent.
2. Add red chili powder, fry for a minute and then add tomatoes and fry for 2 to 3 min till little oil leaves and then add Garam Masala and mix well.
3. Add paste, salt and tomato ketchup and mix well.
4. Garnish with coriander.