My Bhutanese-Indian Pasta

I love cooking, that is when it only happens once a month. Our house help cooks for us since we are busy buzzing people. Daily, yes, we are at the mercy of having South Indian food on our dinner table. We eat lunch at school. Sometimes, we get lucky when she makes some of her specialty such as chicken biryani or rasam and sometimes upma for breakfast. But she can't cook these same things every single day, can she? Or who's gonna eat it?

It all started from last night's pasta party! I remember how I loved Italian pasta from the Italian restaurant back home in Roxas. That bacon pasta last night with rich olive oil and lemon cheese pie for dessert made me reach home ecstatic! I just realized how much I missed Italian food!

THE BHUTANESE ASPECT OF IT:

Then here is a historical background of my version of pasta today. Our Bhutanese friends make this powerful , creamy and delicious hot meal made of mashed potatoes and vegetables cooked in green chillies and cheese sauce, yes, melted cheese sauce.

I love the herbs and pasta in Italian cooking that I boiled the vegetables in cinnamon, thyme, rosemary, basil, sliced green and red chillies, salt and butter. Same with the pasta separately.

THE INDIAN ASPECT OF IT:

Then I poured oil(preferably olive oil) in a new pan with butter, a pinch of sugar and cumin seeds. Frying everything on cumin seeds first is a common Indian practice. This is just like sauteing anything on garlic and onions first in the Philippines. I didn't have garlic today so I missed that aroma in my pasta.

Then I put the drained boiled herbed and chillied vegetables with the pasta boiled in herbs and butter on that crackling pan of hot oil and cumin seeds. I tossed them together and then voila! The cheese slowly melted putting the pasta and vegetables together.

MY ASPECT OF IT:

Served it on a plate for my family to eat! The aroma of the herbs and the cream of the cheese balanced it out while the bite of the green chillies has seeped into each piece of the vegetable. Garnish it with extra cheese and fresh mint leaves.

I was wishing to have a bottle of Sprite beside me! There was traffic outside that I thought it will be a challenge to get a Limca! Lemon based Sprite version here in India.Our traffic here happens on weekends as our place is a tourist destination esp. during the summer, on top of that, devotees flock here now because the Swami Sai Baba is here.

NEXT TIME:

a) Next time, I'd put fried yellow,orange and red capsicums on top for color