Liberating Pasta

For me cooking pasta till this point has been about making a spicy sauce by sauteing tomato puree with vegetables and throwing in Basil and Oregano with a large dash of pepper/chilly powder to suit my Indian taste buds. Then you raid the fridge for cheese (any variety will do, even Amul cheese spread) and add a huge dollop of it to the spicy 'curry'. The final step involves toppling the sauce into the pre-cooked pasta. I still love this and on a cold evening, it could be just the thing to cheer me up.

The Italian's here didn't completely disapprove, but when I asked them if it was good enough to cook my way into an Italian boy's heart, they wore that characteristic expression of European diplomacy. "You know, it's rather spicy for the Italian boy" suggested one of them. Further discussions on this subject of prime importance revealed that there were other ways to cook pasta without spicing it out of recognition.

Here's my favourite-

Add olive oil, freshly ground pepper and salt to warm pasta (I prefer spaghetti). Saute mushrooms (you could replace this with shrimp or anything else that requires only light cooking) and throw that in as well. Mix it up a little so that the ingredients blend in and your meal is ready. It tastes extremely subtle, but suddenly I know what the pasta tastes like since its not masked in tomatoes and spices.

Buona Appetito!