Three-Step Pasta

Fresh, quick to prepare, cheap and healthy are the main attributes of this pasta dish-for-beginners. Because, yes, when it comes to cooking Italian, I am a mere beginner.

I enjoy food, hence this blog, but I am more attracted to spices and exotic places than to European cuisines. 

The following recipe is a "Katch-me-up" version of an Italian classic: spaghetti with mushrooms, garlic and extra virgin olive oil.

Type of cuisine: Low-Fat Italian/Vegetarian

Difficulty: easy

Time: 25 minutes

Cost: cheap

Availability of ingredients: medium, if you cook it in winter when fresh tasty tomatoes are hard to get.

Ingredients (for 2 people)

# half a box of  good quality spaghetti or spaghettoni

# a tray of fresh mushrooms

# a bunch of parsley

# spring onions

# 1 small onion

# 5 big tomatoes (or half a can of Cirio diced tomatoes)

# herbs: rosemary, basil, sage

# garlic

# salt and pepper to season

# a pinch of brown sugar (for the tomato sauce)

# a dash of olive oil

STEP 1

Fry the mushrooms and the onion till they become soft.

STEP 2

Make your own tomato sauce: diced tomatoes, herbs, garlic, brown sugar and salt/pepper. Reduce.

In the meantime, boil the water, add salt, drizzle a dash of olive oil, sprinkle some herbs, and throw in the pasta.

STEP 3

Chop the spring onions and the parsley Asian style. Have you noticed that in Chinese restaurants spring onions are cut in large chops and they are added towards the end of the cooking time? 

Well, do so as well! Parsley is full of vitamin C and the spring onions taste better raw, in my opinion. 

Add the spaghetti cooked al dente (firm, but not hard), the parsley and the spring onions and toss.

LUNCH TIME
Dish it on a plate, add three or four large spoons of tomato sauce and enjoy!

Don't know why, I am in an Italian mood today. I was actually planning on writing about a simply delicious Indian vegetarian dish, but I changed my mind at the last minute.

My next entry will be...

If you have enjoyed the Three-Step Pasta, you will certainly love my Four-Step Prawn Pasta. Till then, chill out and dream of far-away places, a deserted white beach, clear green seas, half a glass of chilled white wine, and somebody to share all this with...