Red Sauce for Pasta Preparation

This is one of the recipes used for red sauce preparation.

Cooking time: 20mins

Ingredients
2 tbsps olive oil or butter
1 finely chopped onion
3-4 crushed garlic cloves
5 large tomatoes, blanched, skinned, pureed and sieved
1 small finely chopped green capsicum or green bell pepper
4-5 tbsp finely chopped fresh parsley
1 tsp mixed dried herbs or oregano
2 tbsps tomato sauce
1 tsp sugar
1/4 tsp freshly ground pepper
1/4 tsp red chilli flakes
salt to taste

Method
Heat olive oil in a vessel, add the onions and garlic and saute till transparent. Add the bell peppers, parsley and salt. Combine.
Add the tomato puree, oregano, tomato sauce, pepper and salt. Add red chilli flakes and cook for 6-8 mts, stir once in a while, over low heat. Turn off the heat.

How to cook Pasta?

Many of us have a problem to understand how to cook pasta. The other common problem is to know when they are cooked enough. Sometimes the pasta are too hard and sometimes they are too mushy.

Serves: 2

Ingredients:
1 mug of Pasta shapes
salt to taste
2 table spoons oil

Method:
Boil water in a one litre container.
While the water is still boiling. add salt and pasta to it. Now, add 1 tbsp oil to it. Try to put it over the pasta shapes.
Stir them for a while or they will stick to each other. First few minutes are important.
Lower the heat to little. Now, let the water reach the boiling point once again.
The only way to check if the pasta is correctly cooked is to taste it. It should be 'al dente' - firm, yet tender.
Drain the pasta into a colander. Shake off excess water by lifting the colander.
Do not rinse if you are serving a hot dish. That will remove the starch which helps hold the sauce.
If you are making a cold salad, rinse with cold water so the salad is not sticky. Mix 1 tbsp oil in the cooked pasta avoiding them to stick to each other.

Tips:

• Different pasta shapes take different cooking time. For instance: Fusilli cook faster than Penne. While for Lasagna, each strip is dipped in boiling water separately.
  
• If you cover the container, pastas will cook faster.
• Pastas overcook very easily so one has to take care.
  
• If you are going to cook the pasta further i.e. for a casserole or even with sauces, under-cook them.
  

Corn and Pasta Salad

This is one of the simplest and quickest pasta recipes I have come across, got it off my flatmate.

Cooking time: 10 mins Serves 6

Ingredients:

• 750g Corn
• 3-4 cups cooked pasta shapes
• 1/4 cup each thick mayonnaise and milk
• 1/4 cup chopped parsley
• 1 finely chopped green chilli
  
• 1 tsp ground paprika
• salt to taste
  

Method:

Microwave the corn in a covered container for 6-8 minutes and cool.

For Dressing: Mix together the mayonnaise, milk, parsley and paprika.

Toss corn with the pasta and dressing. Season with green chilli, salt and pepper. Serve warm or cold along side warm bread and soup (optional).