“Life is a combination of magic and pasta.” Fedrico Fellini

We, as a family love pasta – any form. Be it baked or as a salad or just tossed with chicken or vegetables.

Cooking of pasta is dicey. Macaroni, pennae, elbow etc have a shorter cooking time than spaghetti. I have chosen wheat spaghetti for today’s dish. It takes a good 10 -12 minutes to cook spaghetti al dente, that is you cook it long enough to be neither hard nor soft but firm and chewy. There has to be a kind of slight bite to it. When cooking pasta, any odourless vegetable oil (1-2 tbsp) and salt have to be added to the water. The water has to come to a boil before adding your pasta. Once cooked, drain the pasta keeping aside some of the liquid in case you need it later. Once the pasta has cooled down, take some olive oil in your fingers and run it through the cooked pasta ensuring it does not stick to each other and it’s ready to use later.

Spaghetti with meat balls or just minced chicken – is delicious, flavourful and a favourite dinner special.

Spaghetti with Paneer balls is my alternative for the vegetarians. Before I fry the minced onions, minced garlic is fried and literally burnt in a little butter and oil, so that the flavour stays on right through the dish. It’s a simple no fuss recipe, where all the ingredients are freely available in your kitchen pantry except for maybe parsley. No cheese or cream has been used.

Ingredients:

• Spaghetti-200 grams
• Olive oil / any vegetable oil -2tbsp ( odourless)
• Salt-1 tsp

Paneer Balls:

• Paneer-200grams
• Bread -2 slices soaked in 2 tbsp of curd and squeezed out
• Green chillies -2 minced
• Flour -2 tbsp
• Salt to taste
• A pinch of soda- bi-carb ( optional)
• Oil to fry

For the sauce:

• Garlic minced -3-4 tbsp (10-12 cloves)

• Tomato -5 blanched in water and puréed
• Onion- 2chopped
• Green chilly-2 minced
• Kashmiri chilli powder-1 tsp or more if you like it spicy
• Sugar-1-2 tsp ( To balance out the flavour)
• Tomato purée -2 tbsp ( tetra pack)
• Unsalted butter -3 tbsp and a little olive / vegetable oil
• Salt to taste

Method:

• Bring a pan full of water to boil. Add oil and salt. Slide in the spaghetti and cook for 10-12 minutes till al dente. Drain and keep aside. Once cooled, with a little oil on your fingertips, run through the cooked spaghetti to keep it separate. Keep it aside.

For the Paneer Balls:

• Grate the paneer in a bowl. Keep aside 2 tbsp to garnish the dish. To the remaining grated paneer add bread slices, green chillies, flour, salt and soda-bi-carb. Mix well. The mixture should be firm. If soft, refrigerate for 20 minutes and then form balls.(12)
• Deep fry in hot oil and keep aside

For the sauce:

• Heat butter and oil, on a medium flame fry minced garlic till golden brown .
• Add tomato purée and all the other ingredients except sugar and salt.
• Simmer for 10 minutes.
• Taste and balance out the flavour with salt or sugar.
• Add the paneer balls and blend well on low heat.
• The cooked spaghetti can be added to the above mixture or the sauce can be poured on top of a layer of spaghetti.
• Garnish with parsley and grated paneer.

Chefs tips:

• I have used wheat spaghetti.
• Paneer should be fresh.
• You can add a tbsp of fresh basil leaves( minced) to the paneer mixture before forming it into balls.
• Always fry on high heat, a few at a time.
• You can mince green chilly with the help of a pair of scissors.
• The dish should be done on medium heat so that the flavours are well incorporated over a period of time.
• This dish serves 4-5 adults.

Hasta la Pasta

Till my next post

Cheers,

Rose