Pasta Recipe:

When I was searching about must do’s in Pondicherry, I came across this amazing small place called Tanto’s which is famous for their wood fire pizza’s and handmade pasta’s. We chalked down our itinerary and this was one of our must dos, when we were there a couple of months back.

We had planned a visit to this place while visiting Auroville, because it is situated in almost 30 km away from the main city, on the way to Auroville. On the way back from Auroville, we had visited this place and it was not yet ready to serve lunch. I was not ready to go back empty handed and was feeling really upset. On hearing this, the owner suggested to us to buy their ready to cook handmade pasta packets and I picked up their five varieties of dried pastas. That included whole wheat plain, Basil, carrot, spinach and beetroot one. Tried everything and liked it all other than basil. This recipe which I am sharing now is specially designed for my daughter who hates bland white sauce pastas.

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Ingredients:

Pasta – 1 packet

Whole wheat flour – 2 teaspoon

Chopped veggies – 1 cup (I have used zucchini, broccoli)

Butter – 1 table spoon

Garlic salt – as per taste

Chilli flakes – as per taste

Oregano – as per taste

Pizza sauce – 2 to 3 teaspoon

Hot and sweet tomato sauce – 2 teaspoon

Milk – 2 cups

Mozzarella cheese – as required (grated)

Method:

-Take one big vessel with sufficient water,1 tsp of oil and little salt. When it starts boiling, drop in pasta and cook.

-When it is done, drain the cooked pasta and reserve water for further use.

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-Cool the pasta by pouring cold water and set aside.

– Chop the veggies and keep aside.

-Take one kadai, dry roast whole wheat flour and keep aside.

-In the same kadai, add butter, chopped veggies and fry for a while. Add garlic salt, red chilli flakes and oregano.

– When it is done (it should be crunchy) add pizza sauce, hot and sweet tomato sauce and mix nicely, so that veggies will be coated with this masala.

-Now add roasted whole wheat flour and mix evenly.

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-Add little reserved water (drained water from pasta in which is cooked) ,milk and boil until it is thick and creamy.

-Check for seasoning and add grated cheese and mix in pasta.

-If you find sauce is thick or dry, add either reserved water or milk and adjust the consistency.

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– Serve and enjoy.

Pumpkin Tawa Fry

Two years back I had a pumpkin vine in my kitchen garden. We enjoyed so many delicacies from its flower and we used to love the  tawa fry of the flowers a lot. Even now my daughter remembers the taste of it and asks me to make them. Last week she asked me to try pumpkin tawa fry, instead of the flower and it turned out to be absolutely delicious and she was happy too. It is a blend of all kinds of flavours, the sweetness and hing combine to make it a great side dish.

pumpkin-tawa-fry

Here I have used green colored young pumpkin –

Ingredient:

Pumpkin slices – 20

For marinating:

Salt – 1 teaspoon

Hing – ¼ tsp

Red chilli powder – ½ tsp

Outer cover:

Chiroti /fine rawa – 3 table spoon

Rice flour – 2 teaspoon

Powdered Hing – ½ tsp

Salt – to taste

Red chilli powder – 1 tsp

Turmeric – ½ teaspoon

Coconut oil – 3 -4 table spoon.

Method:

  • Slice pumpkin into ¼ “thickness, with outer skin intact.

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  • Put marinating ingredient and mix this and keep aside for 1 to 2 hours.
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Rawa coated pumpkin pieces
  • Take one bowl: mix all the ingredients under outer cover- rawa, salt, rice flour, hing, red chilli powder, turmeric – and mix without adding water.
  • Whenever you are ready to make it, heat iron Dosa griddle, dip each piece in the rawa mix, coat both the side nicely and keep them for frying on the hot iron griddle.
  • Roast both the sides by applying sufficient coconut oil.

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  • It can be served as an appetizer or side dish for a South Indian lunch.

-Hope you will like the dish as much as we did 🙂

Have a nice day! Cant wait to put up more dishes for you 😀

P.S: If any of my ideas inspire you to create something on the similar lines, I would feel highly flattered. But please, do respect the effort I take in conceptualizing and executing, please give a direct link to my work when you are inspired by mine. Thanks for understanding 🙂