Spaghetti in Pink Sauce with Vegetables

 

February 8

I just took a fun survey and found out I prefer pasta over pizza. I think I knew it all the time but then this survey helped me get a better insight :D. Though kids of my generation will always agree that our introduction into the world of Italian food was through the Pizza only. There was a time when if you were a person who had had a pizza, then you automatically became an elite in everyone's eyes - true blue cosmopolitan! Pizzas entered the Indian food market around the 1980s but it was not until 1996 that some American fast food chains set up shop with their pan pizzas. The craze for pizza started to wane, when its relation with obesity started doing the rounds. As Indians became more and more inclined towards healthy eating, pizza got categorized as junk food. 

Over the years, Pasta became the new pizza of the Indian food lovers, especially for the urban middle classes. And during last year during the lockdown, the consumption and varieties increased multifold. Home chefs started preferring it over pizza, because it is easy to make and could be prepared in bulk and even in its reheated form it tasted delicious, unlike pizza which has to be consumed fresh. Also, you can add a lot of veggies into it and make it into a nutritious meal. I am a non vegetarian but when it comes to pasta, I love having it vegetarian. At home I usually load it up with oodles of fresh seasonal vegetables. At times there is more veggies on my plate than pasta and I I totally love it that way.

I think I have mentioned it before also, but my introduction to pink sauce in a pasta was very recent, like 3 -4 years back. I had gone to this restaurant in Koregoan Park in Pune. It is a pure vegetarian restaurant serving global cuisines. The friend suggested to try out their pasta and customized it, asking the chef to prepare it in 'pink' sauce which was not on the menu. I was intrigued by the sound of pink sauce. The friend then explained it to me, that actually it would be like a mélange of the red and white sauce. Now I am not someone who is very fond of the red sauce in a pasta, I will always side with a good white sauce. The dish was served and it looked pretty with a subtle pink hued sauce. With a tad little apprehension I took the first spoonful and was in heaven. It tasted subtle, silky, crunchy veggie loaded - perfect in every sense. 

The takeaway from that experience was that now I always try making a pink sauce and put lots of veggies in my pasta. I don't usually put a lot of cheese in my pasta hence I try to add a dollop more of fresh cream in the sauce. But cheese lovers, you can go a little crazy on the cheese content if you wish. When I am not indulging in Chinese on a weekend, its pasta what I would end up making.

PS. I got this super cute pink pasta bowl from a Japanese store in a mall a few week back and it has become my new favorite dish to have pasta in!

Preparation Time : 10 minutes

Cooking Time: 25  minutes

Serves: 2

Ingredients:

For Pasta

• Spaghetti Pasta - 250 gm
• Salt - 2 tsp (10 gm)
• Water - 2 1/2 liter of water
• Olive Oil or any neutral flavor oil - 1 tsp

For Sauce

• Zucchini - 1
• Broccoli -  2 cup into florets
• Squash - 1
• Mushroom - 100 gm 
• Tomato Puree - 4 tbsp
• Fresh Cream -  1/2 cup
• Cheese - 1/4th cup or more if you like
• Salt - as per taste
• Butter - 1 tbsp
• Chilli flakes - 1 tsp
• Ground Pepper powder - 1 tsp

Equipment:

• Wok & Spatula
• Knife

Procedure: 

1.  Start by prepping the pasta first. Select a roomy deep pot that gives the pasta plenty of space to move around. Fill it with water and add the salt. Bring it to a rolling boil and then add the spaghetti. 

Add the spaghetti and stir it gently until all the strands sink beneath the water level. Pasta releases starch as soon as it is added to water, hence stir the contents of the pot, this will help in dissolving the starch.

Cook the pasta as per the packet instructions, just take off 2 minutes form the mentioned time for optimum cooking.

Tip 1: Don't add oil as it floats to the top of the water surface thereby not helping. Secondly, adding oil to cooked spaghetti will make any sauce slide off it, which we of course do not want.

Tip 2: Put the lid on the pot to make the water boil faster. Keep checking occasionally when you hear the rolling boil sound so that it doesn't overflow.

Tip 3: The water need to boil vigorously when you add the pasta. 

Tip 4: Be generous with the salt. As the pasta cooks the salt will penetrate into it and season it properly.

2. Strain the pasta and cool briefly. Do not rinse under water. Rinsing washing away the starch that helps the sauce stick to the pasta. Keep aside.

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3. Now start working on the vegetables and the sauce. Blanch the broccoli florets and keep aside. Chop all the vegetables.

4. Heat pan and add the butter to the pan. Once the butter starts to melt, add the chopped garlic and add a pinch of salt on top of the garlic. Sauté for a couple of minutes till lightly fragrant. Add the chopped onions. Cook for a few minutes on medium heat till the onions are a little translucent.

5. Now add the broccoli, mushroom and zucchini. Fry for a couple of minutes. 

6. Add the tomato puree at this stage and fold in. Cook for a few minutes till the raw smell of tomatoes are gone.

7. Add the fresh cream and fold in. Adjust the seasoning and salt level at this stage.

Tip: You can increase the amount of fresh cream as per your preference.

8. Now toss in the cooked spaghetti into the sauce. 

9. Now grate the cheese into the pan and fold in.

10. Add ground black pepper and chilli flakes and give a final stir.

Serve hot.

Recipe Video :