Pink Sauce Pasta - Aarti Madan

Ingredients

Note– Please read recipe notes in the end.

Main Equipment Used

Tefal Non-Stick set of 5: https://amzn.to/2Y7mZuX
Induction cooktop – I use Morphy Richards 1600 Watt Cooktop. You can find it on Amazon here: https://amzn.to/2Jkn4px

In a pan add water and bring it to a boil. Now add salt and olive oil. Further, add the penne pasta and boil it on a medium flame for 8-9 minutes or until soft.
To check if the pasta is perfectly cooked, cut it with a knife and it will easily cut.
Take a sieve/colander and rinse the excess water and keep it aside.

To make the red sauce, take 4-5 juicy tomatoes. Make a small ‘x’ cut at the bottom of the tomatoes.
In a pan of hot boiling water add all the tomatoes and let them boil for a minute or until the skin starts to peel.
Now immediately transfer the tomatoes in a bowl filled with chilled water and ice cubes. (ice batch)
Let them rest in the chilled water for a minute, so they cool down. Now peel the skin starting from the ‘x’ mark you made.
Now roughly chop all the blanched tomatoes.
Transfer them in a mixer grinder and grind for a minute. Don’t grind into a fine paste, it should have a thick coarse texture.

To make the white sauce, place a sauce pan over low flame and add butter and oil in it.
Now add the refined flour and cook for couple of minutes on medium-low flame, while stirring it continuously. Once done the refined flour will become little fluffy.
Now slowly and gradually add cold milk, while stirring it continuously. Further, add salt and black pepper.
Keep stirring for 2-3 minutes and then add the cheese slices. Cook till it becomes slightly thick and creamy. Do not overcook the sauce, as it will thicken after we will add the pasta.

To toss the veggies place a pan over medium flame and add olive oil. butter, garlic and mixed herbs. Slow cook the herbs and garlic in butter on low flame for 3-4 minutes till the garlic becomes little golden in colour and turns aromatic.
Now add chopped onions and toss them for 2-3 minutes until the onions get a nice golden colour.
Further add capsicum, red and yellow bell peppers and cook for another 2 minutes.
Finally add the fresh tomato puree we prepared earlier. Now add tomato ketchup, salt and mix well.
Cover it with a lid and cook for 2-3 minutes till it slightly thickens.
Further add the white sauce and mix well.
Lastly add the boiled pasta and mix until all the pasta is well coated in the pink sauce. Cover it with a lid and cook for 2 minutes. Do not over cook.
Serve immediately.

Always cook the garlic and herbs on low flame for extra flavour, else they might burn.
While making the white sauce always add cold milk, else it will form lumps.
Do not overcook the white sauce else, after adding the pasta it will become thicker and won’t remain saucy anymore.
You can add any veggies of your choice, like baby corn, sweet corn, zucchini, broccoli.
After adding the pasta if the sauce has thickened a lot then add few tablespoons of hot milk or water and cook for 2 minutes.