Pasta in white sauce

I made this yummy pasta for lunch today. I followed Trish's recipe completely, except that intstead of fresh vegetables, I used frozen mixed veges consisting of beans, carrots, red capsicum, cauli, brocolli and corn.

Thanks Trish for sharing this great recipe...kids loved it !

Note: for the recipe, please follow the link...thanks :-)

Pasta

This is another of our favourites and it's just too simple to make. I make this for dinner whenever D is not there for dinner cause he doesn't like pasta, noodles, pizza etc for dinner - he likes proper dal-chawal-roti wala dinner.

I made this last night as he had to go to his Team dinner at work.

Ingredients:

Pasta- 500gm

Tomato & basil pesto (or normal tomato paste if pesto is not available)- 50gms

spinach- a cereal bowl full finely chopped ( or more if you like - I love it)

corainder- one bunch finely chopped

Garlic- 3 cloves finely chopped ( we get really big garlics here so adjust accordingly)

cream- 100-150ml

cheese- a cereal bowl full ( grated)

Olive oil- 2tbsp.

Onions- 1 finely chopped

tomato- 1 finely chopped

ground black pepper- as per taste

Method:

Cook the pasta as per the instructions on the pack with little oil and salt. Drain the water when done, but still firm. Keep it aside.

Heat oil in a pan ( I sometimes use butter instead of oil and it tastes great). Add garlic. Once it gets slightly reddish, add onions and cook till they turn golden brown. Add the pesto or tomato paste. Keep stirring till oil seperates. Add the cream and let it boil till the oil floats.

Turn off the heat and immediately add the pasta, spinach, tomatoes, coriander, pepper and cheese. Cover. Its done.

Since I am a little lazy when it comes to cooking, I add the cheese together with that. But actually it should be added on the top after mixing everything else and should go in the oven untill the cheese starts melting ( according to the original recipe which was given to me by a chef friend). But I just mix it all together and for the kids, I add extra cheese on the top when serving them and put their bowls in the microwave for a few seconds. Still tastes great.

You can adjust the pepper as per your taste, but I like when theres lots of it so I add it generously. You can also add brocolli along with spinach to make it more nutritious. I just love spinach to I add lots and lots of it.