Anjali's Food Kaleidoscope

Pasta in spinach sauce

Lets make pasta a little more nutritious by adding spinach sauce.

We start by boiling the two cups of penne in plenty of salty water. I couldn't avoid getting the reflection of my kitchen windows in the water.

Boil the penne for atleast ten minutes or till done and then drain it in a colander and run cold water to stop the cooking. Just add a tablespoon of oil to the penne and  toss the pasta to  avoid  it from sticking .

Take two to five tablespoons of butter in a pan and put in on low flame , the moment the butter begins to melt add two tablespoons of crushed garlic.

stir fry on low flame till the garlic...

......turns golden .

Add one cup of thick spinach puree ( I just steamed a big bunch of spinach leaves by giving just one whistle in the pressure cooker without adding any water , squeezed out any excess liquid and pureed it after it cooled down).The result is this thick paste.

stir fry for about a minute and then add about three to five tablespoons of tomato ketchup ( I added the home made ketchup which I have stored in the refrigerator since the day I put it on the blog).

Since all the ingredients are precooked we need not cook any further, just a little stirring on low flame to mix all the things well.

Add the pasta into the pan.

...and  toss it till the sauce coats the pasta well.Add salt to taste ( do remember that we have already added the salt to the boiling water and the ketchup also a fair amount of salt ),  half a teaspoon of black pepper powder and two pinches of nutmeg powder.

Transfer the pasta into a  microwave safe dish and sprinkle some grated cheddar on top.

you can skip this part if you like or add as much cheddar as you like...all to your own personal choice. My kids love cheese so I put lots of it.

warm it in the microwave before serving and the melted cheddar cheese will look delicious and add to the taste as well.

You could  do a bit of a variation to the same recipe by making a thick white sauce and adding the spinach puree and omitting the tomato sauce and mixing the sauce with pasta of you choice and baking for about twenty minutes at 180 degrees.