We all know that pasta is the staple food of Italian cuisine and it is also famous all over the world. It gained its popularity long back. Though in many places authentic recipe is followed to cook pasta yet many new ways of cooking pasta has evolved over time. People cook pasta according to their own taste and preferences. For a long time my favorite has been Penne Pasta in Red Sauce but since some time I’ve developed my own way of cooking the pasta according to my own liking.

Preparation Time: 15 minutes

Cooking Time: 15 minutes

Serves: 02

Course: Breakfast/ Lunch/ Snack

Cuisine: Italian

Ingredients:

Penne Pasta                                                                  1 ½ cups

Tomato                                                                         5 large

Onion                                                                            1 medium

Capsicum                                                                      1 medium

Chopped Garlic                                                            2 tbsp

Chopped Ginger                                                 1 tsp

Green Chili                                                                    1

Mix Italian dry herbs                                                   1 ½ tbsp

Tomato Ketchup                                                          ¼ cup

Red Chili Sauce                                                             2 tsp

Salt to Taste

Butter/ Oil as required

Processed Cheese/ Parmesan Cheese                        ¼ cups

Water as required

Directions:

1. Take 2 cups of water in a pot and bring it to a boil. To the boiling water add the tomatoes and cook for 5 minutes in the boiling water. After 5 minutes, take it out of the boiling water and put it into the cold water and peel off the tomatoes. Cut off the top part of the tomatoes and grind it to make a fine paste. Strain the tomato paste to remove the seeds and keep it aside.
2. Meanwhile, cut the onion and capsicum into small squares, slit the chili and keep it aside.
3. In a frying pan, heat 2 tbsp of butter/ oil and add the chopped ginger-garlic. Sauté for few seconds. Then add slit chili, onion, capsicum and sauté on high heat for few seconds. To this add the tomato paste and mix well. Cook it on medium flame till the paste gets thick.
4. While the sauce is cooking, in a pot boil 2 ½ cups of water, add salt to it. Once the water comes to boil, add the penne pasta and boil it for 8-10 minutes or according to the instruction on the packet. When the pasta is done strain the water using a colander and sprinkle 1-2 tsp of refined oil on the pasta and give it a mix. This prevents pasta from sticking to each other.
5. By the time sauce gets thick, add tomato ketchup, red chili sauce, salt to taste and mix well. Then add the just boiled pasta to the sauce and sauté well. Also add the mix Italian dry herbs and mix well.
6. Serve the pasta hot, sprinkled with grated processed cheese or parmesan cheese.

Tips:

 1. First prepare the pasta sauce, only then boil the pasta because hot boiled pasta needs to be added to the sauce. Cold pasta becomes chewy and springy.

2. To get more spicy taste I add 1-2 tbsp of Ching’s Schezwan Chutney. Even you can give it a try.

3. You can also use pasta of your choice like farfalle, fusilli, macaroni, spaghetti etc.