Magical Mintadian – The Pasta Adventure

It was one fine boring day in the office when I was doing my favorite time pass by browsing IndiBlogger website. I was reading here and there, indulging in random-thoughts-activation-thereby-killing-boredum on reading various posts when I came across the Indiblogger contest from Delmonte.

Now, not everyone knows that I have always loved pasta, to the extent that I have heroically blackmailed (read indulged in emotional appeals/shamelessly bribed) my wife to prepare the same for me many a times. It is another story that, that brave soul had been unflinching to these blackmailing attempts by her sheer willpower till our pasta adventure. I analyzed all pros and cons of participating in this contest judiciously, lazily while scratching my head. “This blog contest is a golden opportunity buddy” – This was the thought when I clicked on the harmless Register button after one and half hours of brainstorming. I completed registration and after two days my beloved wife received an attractive Del Monte pasta package. I made her read all about this contest. Lo and behold, IndiBlogger convinced her in 10 minutes; something in which I was unsuccessful since past 6 months! 

We selected a relatively free Sunday to carry out our joint pasta adventure. She instructed and I bought the ingredients. She arranged the artifacts and I clicked the pictures. She cooked, I assisted. She stirred the sauce and I smelled it to provide my expert comments. She took out the final cooking result in the bowl and I garnished it. (Random resultant thought: Cooking can be the best activity to know each other as a person)

We had invited my sister and her husband for the grand pasta tasting ceremony. Reception to our baby pasta dish was amazing; it was finished in few minutes flat contrary to our fear of creating something gastronomically unappealing. Their praise and our pasta’s endearing fragrance motivated me to submit our entry finally. Our recipe is given below, try it yourself. Hope you discover the magic of pasta!

Presenting you with ‘The Mintadian’: Fresh Mint Pasta – ‘Where Italian meets Indian’

How many lucky ones can enjoy this preparation: 4

How much time you need to devote: 45 minutes

Ingredients for Innovation:

What?	Ugh What?? Come again..	How Much?	Any alternative?
Del Monte Pasta	Pasta	100 Gms	Nope!
Capsicum	Shimla Mirch or Capsico	2 Medium Sized	Nope!
Onion	Pyaz or Cipolla	2 Medium Sized	Nope!
Tomatoes	Tamatar or Pomodori	6 Medium Sized	Tomato Ketchup – 100 ml
Green Chilies	Hari Mirch or Green chili	2	Green chili paste – 1 teaspoon
Ginger	Adrak or Zenzero	2 Cloves	Ginger Paste – ½ teaspoon
Curry Leaves	Kari Patta or foglie di curry	10-15 leaves	Oregano – 1 teaspoon
Dry Mint Leaves	Pudina or foglie di menta	15-20 Leaves	Nope!
Salt	Namak or Sale	2 teaspoon	Of course not!
Butter	Makhkhan or Burro		Olive oil
Carom Seeds	Ajwain/Carom Seeds	1 teaspoon	Dry herbs
Black pepper	Kali mirch/Pepe Nero	½ teaspoon	Nope!
Lemon Juice	Neembu Juice or succo di limone	½ teaspoon	Nope!
Apple	Come on, you must be joking if you are actually looking at this column!	1	Up to you! You may / may not add apple to your final preparation, I added it though.
Pomegranate	Same thoughts as for ‘Apple’ column above :D	1	Up to you! You may / may not add apple to your final preparation; I ended up not adding it.
Cheese	formaggio	2 Dices	Up to you! You may / may not add cheese to your final preparation; I ended up not adding it.
Water	Same thoughts as for ‘Apple’ column above :D	1 ½ Liters	Absolutely not!

 

Let's Begin!

Dummy’s guide to Greatness:

• Take 1ltr of water in a pot and bring it to boil. Add 1 teaspoon salt and 1 dice of butter in it.

• Add Del Monte’s pasta to above boiling water and cook it on high flame for 15 minutes, stirring continuously to avoid sticking of pasta.

Tip: Remove starchy foam occasionally from the top of the pan while the pasta is boiling.

• Drain water from Pasta by using sieve and then grease it with butter to avoid stickiness. Keep it aside. Butter will add to the flavor of the pasta. 

• Dice fresh tomatoes, capsicum, onion, green chilies and ginger 

• Make a paste of capsicum and onion. Keep it aside.
• Make a paste of tomatoes, green chilies, ginger, mint leaves and curry leaves. Keep it aside
• Put 2 tablespoons of butter in a pan and heat it on low flame
• Add carom seeds to it and stir it.
• Add salt and freshly grounded black pepper to the sauce, once it starts boiling. Stir it for 2 more minutes.

• Add cooked pasta to this sauce and take it out in a glass bowl.

• Add a dash of lemon juice to this pasta along with a dollop of butter and garnish it with apple slices and/or pomegranate seeds. Your pasta is ready to be served!

 

PS: Not happy how it looks, but it was a yummy treat. A bowl of pasta was over in exactly 4:30 mins. 


Thank you Delmonte India for this wonderful contest. Shout out to https://www.facebook.com/DelMonteIndia