If you are looking for some easy-peasy Pasta Recipes with some specific sauces, this Red Sauce Pasta is what you should begin with. This lovely pasta dish is a delicious recipe of pasta (macaroni here) and mixed vegetables in a lovely homemade tangy and bright tomato sauce. You can even make this Red Pasta or Tomato Pasta without the veggies. This recipe is vegetarian and is especially good for kids who like pasta, but refuse to consume vegetables.
Prepare Veggies and Cook Pasta
1. First, steam or cook 1 cup mix chopped vegetables until they are cooked and tender. They should not be over cooked.
You can steam or cook them in a stove top pressure cooker for 1 whistle adding water as needed or steam in a steamer pan. You can even steam them in an Instant Pot for 10 minutes. Keep aside.
2. Heat 2.5 cups water with ¼ teaspoon salt and ¼ teaspoon oil in a pan until the water comes to a boil.
3. Then, add 100 grams or 1 cup pasta.
4. On medium to high heat, begin to cook the pasta.
5. Cook pasta until al dente or you can opt to cook them until they are completely done.
6. Then, strain the pasta using a colander or strainer. Keep aside.
Make Red Sauce
7. In a food chopper, food processor, mixer or blender, crush 2 large tomatoes (220 grams) to a puree. Keep aside.
8. Heat 2 tablespoons olive oil in a pan, wok or kadai. Add 1 small to medium bay leaf or tej patta and 4 small to medium finely chopped garlic cloves.
Sauté for some seconds or until the raw aroma of garlic goes away. No need to brown the garlic.
9. Add ⅓ cup finely chopped onions.
10. Begin to sauté the onions on low to medium heat.
11. Sauté onions till translucent.
12. Then, add the prepared tomato puree. If using store bought tomato puree, add 1 cup of it.13. Mix well and begin to sauté the mixture.
14. Stir at intervals and sauté until you see the oil leaving the sides and the sauce has thickened a bit. This means that the tomato puree has cooked.
Add Mushrooms and Capsicum
15. Next, add 1.25 cups chopped button mushrooms.
16. Mix very well.
17. Sauté for 6 to 7 minutes on low to medium heat.
18. Next, add ⅓ cup chopped capsicum (green bell pepper). Mix well.
19. Sauté the capsicum on low to medium heat for 4 to 5 minutes. By now the capsicum will be half cooked and the mushrooms will be cooked.
20. Add ½ teaspoon sugar or as required.
21. Then, add ⅛ teaspoon ground nutmeg powder and ¼ to ½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper.
22. Next, add salt as per taste. Mix very well. If using wine, then you can add 1 tablespoon white or red wine at this stage.
Instead of wine, you can also add ½ tablespoon balsamic vinegar or red wine vinegar.
Make Red Sauce Pasta
23. Now, add the steamed vegetables and ⅓ cup steamed sweet corn kernels in the sauce.
24. Then, add the cooked pasta.
25. Gently toss and mix everything very well, so that the red sauce coats the pasta as well as the vegetables. At this step, you can also add some cream or grated cheese.
After mixing if the pasta looks dry to you, add in a splash of water and mix thoroughly.
26. Turn off the heat. Add 1 teaspoon chopped fresh basil leaves or your preferred herbs. Mix well.
27. Serve Red Sauce Pasta hot or warm. This pasta tastes good even when served at room temperature.
While serving, you can garnish with some grated cheese (cheddar, mozzarella, processed or vegetarian Parmesan) and fresh herbs like basil, parsley, cilantro and thyme.
Expert Tips
- This Red Sauce Pasta is not specifically an Indian Style Pasta Recipe. So, feel free to use a combination of herbs and vegetables that you like.
- Make sure you are not over steaming or over cooking the vegetables. They should not become mushy or too soft.
- Use tomatoes which are ripe, red and less sour. You can also use readymade tomato puree in this recipe.
- If you want, you can skip adding the vegetables all-together or add veggies of your choice. The tomato sauce with just the pasta also tastes good.
- For the pasta, you can use semolina or whole wheat pasta. And any variety of pasta of your choice – macaroni, penne, spaghetti, farfalle, fusilli, etc.
- This dish can be made with any neutral tasting oil and even butter, in place of olive oil.
- You can add fresh or dried herbs of your choice. Use dried basil, if you do not have fresh basil leaves.
- You can make the recipe completely vegan by skipping cheese or cream for garnish or using a plant based cheese.
- If adding wine in this recipe, you can either use red or white wine. Instead of wine, you can also add red wine vinegar, white wine vinegar or balsamic vinegar.