Tuesday, May 3, 2011

Pasta in White sauce with Roasted Vegetables

Pasta is our family favorite next to South-Indian food. We love all types of pasta though I am not a big cheese fan. I know it may sound ironical. I personally believe that pasta tastes so good and love pasta even without or very less cheese. I always make pasta with marinara or tomato-basil sauce and have never tried white sauce before. Was searching for a good white sauce recipe until I came across Prathibha's recipe in The Chef and her Kitchen. I loved her flavors with making pasta for individuals with two different tastes, which exactly is the case in our house. I also loved the substitutions she used for making it healthy using EVOO (Extra virgin olive oil) and Wheat flour. Since I was making the white sauce for the first time I decided to stick to the all-purpose flour but happily used EVOO because we cannot 'not like' it in any case. I used bell peppers for veggies though you can use any vegetables you love. I doubled the measurements since I generally make pasta for lunch and dinner together.
Ingredients:
Serves - 4 to 5 people
Pasta - any variety - 4 cups (I used Macaroni)
Red bell peppers - julienned - 3/4 cup
Green bell peppers - julienned - 3/4 cup
Onions - sliced thin - 1 cup 
Garlic - 8 cloves - chopped fine
Red chilli flakes - 1/2 tsp or to taste
Italian seasoning mix - 1/2 tsp or to taste
Extra Virgin Olive oil - 2 tbsp
Salt & Pepper to taste
For the white sauce:
Extra virgin olive oil - 2 tbsp (you may use butter instead)
All-purpose flour - 2 tbsp (You may use wheat flour)
Milk - 1 1/2 cups
Pasta water - 1 cup or as required
Grated Parmesan cheese - 2 tbsp (I halved this amount from the original recipe, you may add upto 1/2 cup cheese here)
Italian seasoning mix - 1/2 tsp
Black Pepper powder - 1/2 tsp or to taste
Salt - to taste
Method:
Boil 6 litres of water with 2 tsps of salt and a drizzle of olive oil. When it comes to a rolling boil add the pasta. Stir occasionally to prevent the pasta from sticking to the bottom. Cook for the time specified in the pasta cooking instructions (about 8 mins for macaroni). Drain and reserve the pasta water. 
In a medium sauce-pan heat olive oil and add the flour and fry in medium heat for a minute or two and add milk and whisk continuously so that it doesn't form lumps. Now add the reserved pasta water, grated cheese, Italian seasoning, salt and pepper and bring to a boil and remove from heat.
In a wide pan heat olive oil and add the onions and garlic. Saute until the onion is soft and add the red chilli flakes (I just crushed red chillis with my palms to make flakes) and italian seasoning followed by the bell peppers. Fry in high heat for a couple of minutes and reduce the heat to medium to add salt, the prepared white sauce and the cooked pasta with salt to taste. You may add the reserved pasta water to loosen the sauce if you need. Check for seasoning and serve hot.
Sending this as my entry to Tried & Tasted from The Chef and Her Kitchen event by Savi-Ruchi and Lakshmi.


Sending this scrumptious pasta dish to 'Only'-Pasta Pizza and Noodles event by Pari, guest hosted by Jayasri and also to Fusion-Pasta event by Ramya.


36 comments:

  1. I too love pasta but with lots of cheese so mostly make the pasta with white sauce...yours look absolutely delicious with sprouts of colours in between.

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  2. Yummy yummy...no words other than that..

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  3. Looking good :) I am the same way too .. like pasta with less or no cheese. Nice recipe.

    Vardhini
    VardhinisKitchen

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  4. The pasta is so smooth and lovely...Running out of words!

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  5. Hmm it looks colorful..thx for trying it

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  6. Its one of the most healthy and tempting dish.. My kid will love it for sure..
    Sunanda's Kitchen

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  7. Wow wat a wonderful platter,simply inviting..

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  8. My kiddo's all time fav- looks soooo inviting!
    US Masala

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  9. Umm yummy pasta with white sauce ...very tempting

    Deepa
    Hamaree Rasoi

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  10. Wowww... Truly delicious.. looks simply amazing..

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  11. Yummy pasta,looks very inviting.

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  12. Truly inviting n delicious Krithi, By the way, did u take this and some of ur prev post pic in ur studio box ??

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  13. Super creamy pasta.love the platter.appadiye saapiduven.

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  14. nice pasta..mostly all indians addicted to italian food..looks yummy.

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  15. Delicious and creamy looking pasta...

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  16. Nice looking pasta. Feel like having it first thing in the morning :-)

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  17. that looks yummy...I like white sauce more than regular marinara for pasta!,,,,yum
    Smitha
    Smitha's Spicy Flavors

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  18. looks so delicious with all the colorful bell peppers!

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  19. pasta in white sauce is my all time fav .. yours looks delicious and pretty ..
    www.sunshineandsmile.com

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  20. Looks so delicious.I am bookmarking this.

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  21. I love pasta too in any kind of sauce, but I think a creamy sauce is my favorite. Yours looks delicious:)

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  22. simple and looks so yummy!

    http://hobbyandmore.blogspot.com/

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  23. I am also not a big fan of cheese! Loved your version of pasta!

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  24. à®°ொà®®்ப நல்லா இருக்கு கீà®°்த்தி...சூப்பர்ப்...

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  25. Yummy pasta its been ages i didnt have them

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  26. Pasta in white sauce looks yummy:-)

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  27. looks so pretty! simple whiteness is purity!

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  28. simply divine and edible any time :)

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  29. I made something similar for my kids yesterday :-)Looks wonderful !

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  30. wow! this looks so delish! just found you blog and i LOVE it!!!
    -mini baker

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