Everybody loves Pasta, and you can eat it during any time of the day. Today, I am going to share the recipe of how to make Penne pasta.

Cooking and preparation time: 1-1.5 hours

Ingredients:

I prepare Pasta in a very healthy manner where I use the following vegetables.

1) Mushrooms (300 grams)

2) Chopped Capsicum, red and yellow bell peppers. Also, Basil for garnishing.

3) Zucchini and Broccoli

4) Tomato Puree – One packet

5) Penne Pasta (Boiled) – 100 grams

6) One chopped onion

7) Chopped garlic

8) Half a tea spoon salt

9) Freshly ground black pepper

10) Four table spoons of Olive Oil

For white sauce:

1) One tea spoon of wheat flour

2) One cup of milk

3) Half a tea spoon butter

Procedure:

Take a bowl and boil the mushrooms in a microwave for 4 minutes. In order to boil mushrooms, add two table spoons of milk in the water, and now put them in the oven. In case, you do not have an oven, boil them on a gas stove for 5-10 minutes.

Important tip: Milk almost kills the stale aftertaste of mushrooms.

Let’s prepare the white sauce now. Take a pan with a heavy base and put some butter in it.

Add one tea spoon of wheat flour.

Stir the flour so that it does not stick with the pan.

Now add a glass of milk. Make sure that there are no small balls of flour; hence, it is very important to continuously stir the milk until there comes a boil.

After it boils, cook the white sauce for two minutes on slow burner and that’s all. Make sure that the viscosity is high. In other words, the sauce should be thick.

Red gravy :

Take a cooking vessel with a heavy base and add two table spoons of Olive Oil (Extra Virgin).

Add chopped onions.

Saute them and after a minutes, add chopped garlic.

After a minute, add tomato puree.

Mix it well and add salt.

Important tip: You can also add dry Basil to bring more flavor in the sauce. Basil goes very well with the Pasta, and I use both dry basil as well as the fresh leaves. Along with it, add freshly ground black pepper as it will bring flavor and spiciness.

Also, it is important to add half a tea spoon of sugar to balance the acidic taste in the tomato puree. 

Now wait for a boil. Once it boils, cook it on slow burner for 10 minutes. After the puree is cooked, add Zucchini and Broccoli.

Firstly, we put those vegetables which take time to cook. As Zucchini and Broccoli need more cooking time, we put them first in the tomato gravy. After two minutes, add capsicum.

Mix all the vegetables.

Put a lid and cook the vegetables for 10 minutes on slow burner. After that, add boiled mushrooms.

As the mushrooms are almost cooked, just cook them for another 5 minutes so that they blend well with the gravy. Now add white sauce.

Mix the sauce with the vegetables.

Cook it for another five minutes and let it get blend with the red gravy. Now add red and yellow bell peppers.

The above mentioned bell peppers do not need much cooking time; hence, mix them well and add green olives now.

Important tip: No pasta is complete without Olives; hence, my recommendation will be to use green olives instead of black olives because the former has more flavor and taste.

Cook the pasta sauce for 5-10 minutes and then add fresh Basil leaves.

Mix all the ingredients and add two table spoons of Olive Oil.

Mix it with the sauce and add boiled Penne Pasta.

Mix the pasta with the sauce. Now put a lid and cook it for two minutes.

Important Tips: 

1) After adding Penne pasta into the sauce, you can further add one table spoon of Olive Oil so that the pasta does not get sticky. The choice is yours: you can add Olive Oil before adding Penne pasta or the other way around.

2) To get more flavor, you can also add some cheese at the end.

3) The other way to present the pasta is by adding the sauce on top of it. In other words, once your pasta sauce is ready, take it off from the burner and add it on top of the boiled Penne pasta in some other bowl. I do the other way around because my personal opinion says that when you cook pasta in the sauce for two minutes, the sauce blends well with it, and the overall taste is enhanced.

And your delicious and delectable pasta is absolutely ready. Enjoy this healthy dish and please share your feedback with me.