Who doesn’t enjoy a family time sitting lazily on the sofa with relatives and friends around? And, nothing could beat that when you’ve good food to relish along with the conversation. 15th of August, being our Independence day and hence, a national holiday, I invited my sister-in-law to spend the evening with us. She is a new mum and, her cute angel is the apple of all eyes in the family. My son loves to spend time with his little cousin sister. I wanted to prepare a dish for the evening and, suddenly my eyes fell on the pack of Del Monte farfalle pasta I received from Indiblogger and Del Monte as one of the participants of the Del Monte Blogging Contest. My sister-in-law is an ardent lover of pasta, so without a second thought, I made up my mind.

It was quite an impromptu decision and, I had nothing special in store. But I wanted to make it special, partly that it was a part of the contest and mainly because I wanted my family to enjoy the food. I found two different bell peppers, one green and another red, in the refrigerator and an idea struck me! Why not make the pasta in a purely Indian way representing our tricolour national flag? And, so I started working on an instant recipe that came in my mind. The consequence? Well, a big round of applause from my dearest and nearest people and more importantly, happy and satisfied smiling faces.

Let me share the recipe with my dear readers.

The Tricolour Pasta Indiano 

Ingredients:

• Del Monte Farfalle Pasta
• Red Bell pepper (1 or 2) To make the pasta sauce #1
• Green Bell Pepper( 1 or 2) To make the pasta sauce #2
• Onion (2, finely chopped)
• Garlic
• Cheese (Parmesan cheese is preferable)
• Cilantro chopped (for garnishing if  desired)
Preparation:

First of all I cut the bell peppers and roasted them in the oven till there appeared black blisters on the skin. I coated them with a pinch of vegetable oil before putting in the oven. It added a typical smoky character to the sauce making it more delectable. The roasting took almost 15 minutes (oven preheated to 400°F)  and in the meantime I began to boil the pasta. After the bell peppers were roasted, they looked something like this.

Next was to make the sauce. I let the roasted peppers cool off. Then I first put the green ones in the blender along with a fair amount (about 1tbsp) of chopped garlic, a dash of salt and a little cheese. Within just a minute, a smooth paste was there. The first sauce was now ready.

After scraping all of it from the blender, I repeated the same process with the red bell peppers. The two different coloured sauces were kept aside.

The chopped onions were sautéed in a pan (I used vegetable oil) until they were slightly brownish in colour and looked translucent.

I mixed the onions with the boiled pasta, added the two different sauces so that the dish resemble the tricolour national flag. The final look was pretty good and yummy!

The Tricolour pasta. I put some onions in the middle to bring out the desired effect.

 

Of course, while serving the pasta, I mixed the sauces uniformly with the pasta and, garnished with chopped cilantro. My sis-in-law was super excited as I served her. Her smile said it all. My Italian gastronomical escapade was hugely successful, well-appreciated by all.

Ready To Eat! Yay!

Trivia

It took 45/50 minutes to prepare this.

The oven must be preheated to 400°F

Farfalle is a type of pasta commonly known as “bow-tie pasta”. The name is derived from the Italian word Farfalla. The “e” at the end of the word is the Italian feminine plural ending, making the meaning of the word “butterflies”. (Source: Wikipedia)

Last But Not The Least

The next best thing to food is talking about it. I have enjoyed writing about my experiences with Del Monte Pasta as much as I have enjoyed trying out my culinary skills.  As it is said, “you don’t need a silver fork to eat good food”, similarly, the main ingredients to good food are a little love, patience and some ideas. ‪ #DelMonteItalianEscapades 

Good food is the essence of life. My Tricolour pasta is a harmony of Indian and Italian tastes. How do you like it? Share your thoughts with us.  To know more about delicious Del Monte Pasta, visit the Facebook page.