Spicy Pasta

This is a quick and easy pasta recipe - really handy for those days when you are hungry and don't want to spend too long preparing food.  This one is also a favourite with children.

To make cooking easier - I tend to use American cup measurements .  It makes cooking a lot easier as you don't have to weigh the ingredients. In the case of this recipe, you can estimate a lot of the ingredients and make it to your taste.

Ingredients for 2 Servings
Time 30 minutes

2 cups of  pasta  (you can use penne or Fusilli Pasta)
1 cup any mixed vegetables
2 cups passata (Passata made from ripe tomatoes that have been puréed and sieved to remove the skin and seeds and is available in all supermarkets)
2-3 cloves of garlic - use a garlic press and blend the garlic
4-5 spring onions - finely chopped 1 small finely chopped sweet chile pepper or jalepeno
1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon turmeric
1 teaspoon coriander and cumin powder (dhana jeeru)
½ teaspoon pepper
2 -3 teaspoons olive oil
½ teaspoon oregano

Method: 

1 Cook the pasta and mixed vegetables together by boiling them in hot water with some ½ teaspoon salt and 1 teaspoon olive oil.

2. Once cooked, drain off the water.

3. Add 2 teaspoons of olive oil in  a frying pan.  When the oil gets hot, add in the chopped spring onions,  chopped pepper or jalepeno and garlic. 

4.  Add the salt, pepper, turmeric, cumin and coriander powder (dhana jeeru) and stir well.

5. Add the cooked pasta and vegetables and stir again.

6.  Add the pasatta, stir well  and cook the pasta for 5 minutes.  

7. Sprinkle some oregano and serve hot with a salad.

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Penne Pasta bake

This is a very healthy and easy to make recipe – perfect for dinner or lunch.   What I like about this recipe is that you don’t even need to add any oil to it.

Ingredients to serve 4 people

6 cups of Penne or Fusilli Pasta
6 cups of Passata ( you can use tinned tomatoes but will need more as the sauce will not be as thick as Passata)
7-8 cloves of fresh garlic
1 onion
1 teaspoon salt for the pasta sauce and one for the pasta.
Pepper to taste
2-3 cups of grated cheddar and mozarella cheese
1 teaspoon of oregano

Method:

1. Blend the passata, onions and garlic and heat the sauce.

2. Add the salt and pepper.

3. Once heated, let it simmer gently.

4. This basic sauce can be made ahead and frozen too to use anytime you cook pasta or spaghetti.  If you like hot and spicy pasta, you can add fresh green chillies to the sauce.   You can also add some vegetables to the sauce if you wish to. 

5. Whilst the sauce is heating up, boil 1-2 litres of water with a teaspoon of salt. You need enough water to enable you to cover the pasta and allow it to boil.

6. Once boiled, add the pasta to the water.

7. Once the pasta has cooked, add it to the sauce and transfer to an oven proof dish.

8. Sprinkle with cheese and oregano.

9. Cover the dish with aluminium foil and cook in the middle of the oven at 150 degrees for 20 minutes.

10. Serve pasta with fresh salad.

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