Layered Pasta

Its been a long time since I did a post on a recipe outside Indian kitchen. Infact, while I checked my recipe list, I realised there has not been a single post on Pasta yet though I have posted the "base sauce" sometime back. So, to complete it, here is the recipe for homemade pasta, well ofcourse, with store bought sauce, cheese and pasta of your choice.

Pasta is very easy to make and can be a good choice of a complete meal when you have sudden guests or on one of those tired evenings when you want to spend less than 30 minutes in the kitchen.

Ingredients:

- 3 cups pasta
- 1 cup grated mozarella cheese or any cheese of your choice
- 1 cup tomato base sauce or store bought pasta sauce
- 1 cup white sauce (homemade or store bought)
- 2 tsp olive oil or any cooking oil
- Salt and Black Pepper to taste
- Mixed Italian herbs for seasoning

Prep time: 30 mins                       Bake time: 10 mins

Preparation:

- In a large pot bring enough water to boil. Add 1 tsp of oil and salt and add the 3 cups of pasta. Let the pasta boil for approximately 12 minutes.
- Meanwhile, prepare the basic tomato sauce if you are not using the store bought sauce.
- Drain the boiled pasta and pour some cold water on it to allow the pasta to be separate and not sticky.

- Smear 1 tsp of oil in a wide baking dish or melt just a little butter to coat the bottom of the dish.

- Spread 1/2 cup of tomato sauce on the bottom and top it with 1/2 cup of shredded cheese.

- Spread half of the boiled pasta on the cheese and cover it with 1/2 cup of white sauce.
- Now, layer the remaining pasta and top it with the rest of the tomato sauce followed by the white sauce and shredded cheese.

- Pre-heat oven to 300 deg F and bake for 10 minutes. If you do not have an oven, microwave for 5 minutes or until the cheese melts on top and begins to brown slightly.

- Serve hot sprinkled with some crushed black pepper and the Italian herbs!

Basic Tomato Sauce

Store bought tomato sauce....never again! I came across a very straight forward basic tomato sauce recipe posted by Elise at Simply recipes. When i read the entire post, i thought she must be kidding but no....its true! Once you make the sauce at home, you will never want to buy the stale canned sauces again especially for the pasta and pizza!

It was Friday evening and I had announced a three course meal to my better half! Well, it was his b'day eve and we were bored with eating out......not many restaurant options around the place we live! We had already tried every possible place and did not want to repeat any more. I had planned to make Lasagna for dinner and when i took out my can of tomato sauce, I noticed it had gone past its usable date. So, I ended up with our all time friend google:-)

He gave me too many options but this one stood out of the rest! Being a vegetarian, this recipe was perfect and  I am so glad I decided to use it:-))

Ingredients:

- 1 medium onion (i used red onion)
- 1 medium carrot
- 1 medium capsicum ( authentically it has to be celery but i did'nt have it!)
- 3 cloves of garlic
- 5 medium tomatoes
- 1 tsp pepper
- 2 tbsp oregano
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- Salt to taste
- 1 bay leaf

Prep time: 15 mins            Cook time: 30 mins

Preparation:

- Chop the onion, carrot, capsicum and garlic very finely.While doing this, boil the tomatoes on medium for about 10 minutes.

- In a deep pan, heat 2 tbsp of olive oil, add the bay leaf and then the chopped veggies. Cover and let them cook for 10 mins on medium flame.

- Add the oregano leaves, garlic, pepper and salt and let them cook for a further 5 minutes until the veggies are completely cooked and soft.

- The aroma that fills your home at this stage is fantastic!
- In the mean time, peel the skin off the tomatoes and deseed them all. If you add them with the seeds, it will make it more sour. You could use canned deseeded tomatoes too but that defeats the home made sauce concept:-)!

- Make a puree of 2 of the tomatoes and chop the remaining finely.
- Once the veggies are done, add the tomato puree and the chopped tomatoes. Mix well and boil for a couple of more minutes!
- Home made basic tomato sauce is ready!

At this stage you can whip the sauce with a blender if you prefer!

Foot note:

- You can add basil, thyme or other Italian herbs that you might have. If the flavours would be too strong for you, the herbs can be tied in a small muslin cloth and cooked along with the veggies. In the end, you can remove the bag of herbs!

I am sending this recipe to Herbs and Garlic event being guest hosted by :