Quick, Simple & Delicious: Loopy Linguine (Pasta)

Here is another delicious meal that you can make in about 20 minutes. This dish is the epitome of simplicity. Let's see how it's done.

Cook pasta: Boil water. Once it starts boiling rigorously, add some salt and olive oil. Then add pasta to the boiling water. Olive oil prevents the pasta strands from becoming sticky and also infuses some flavor into it. Boil for about couple of minutes on high heat. Sample a strand and a check if the pasta core is cooked properly. In other words make sure it is soft and chew-able. If you are using a whole wheat pasta, you have to cook it a little longer. Once it is cooked, drain the water and your pasta is ready to be used.

Cooking: Heat up 2 tbsp of olive oil. Add one/two cloves of finely chopped garlic. Saute one onion, one green pepper (capsicum), a pack of mushrooms (all veggies chopped to a medium-size). You can also add shrimp/chicken (well thawed and cooked before). Deep-fried or plain Tofu/Soya can be added if you are a vegetarian. Add a little bit of salt and pepper. Now comes the key ingredient. Add finely chopped fresh basil or pesto sauce. If you don't have both, add the dried and powdered italian seasoning that you get in any super market. If you don't have anything, go to a restaurant and have some nice food or order pizza ;)

Once the onions become translucent, add the cooked pasta and mix everything thoroughly on a low heat. That's it. Your dish is done. You can top it up with some shredded cheese. I like parmesan, swiss or pepper-jack cheese with this dish. You can also add chilly flakes, paprika or hot sauce to spice it up a bit.

Note: Generally, a standard packet can serve atleast 4 people if not more. It might appear to be small/less in the box and it might be very hard to convince yourself that it will suffice 4 people. But when you boil it and cook it with all the ingredients, believe me, it will. My friends and I have made this mistake and cooked too much of pasta that it took us 3 days to finish it. Though we learnt it the hard way, sometimes we still repeat it :)

Hygiene/Health Tip: If you have some extra cooked pasta that you want to use later in the day, refrigerate it or atleast keep it in a vessel on top of an ice bath. Cooked pasta, left at room temperature for long is a perfect breeding ground for bacteria.

Remember: When you are cooking with olive oil, you don't have to heat it too much before sauteing like you do to a regular cooking oil. Once the oil is little warm, you can start sauteing and let the temperature catch up.

Pastas: Though this dish can be made with any pasta, I recommend linguine pasta. It works very well. You can also use cavatappi (cork opener/helical shape). These pastas enhance the plating and presentation if you are serving it to a guest.

Please post your comments/experiences/suggestions in this blog and help others get benefited.

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