Indian Style Macaroni: Bowl Of Veggies With Pasta In Desi Style

Our relationship with noodles, Pasta and Macaroni are just too old and lovable when it comes to tickling our tongues with some exotic yet pleasantly familiar dishes. That’s the reason we keep reinventing this dish in our way and with Indian verve. Indian Style Macaroni just testifies to the fact. This includes a bundle of veggies like capsicum, zucchini and tomatoes spiced up with mushroom and chicken sausages. What lends this macaroni bowl Indianness is the generous infusion of powdered spices like red chilli, black pepper, cumin and garam masala and garlic and ginger. Amidst, the cooking, ladlefuls of pasta liquid added to the veggies and pasta blend make it even more mouthful.

Difference Between Pasta And Macaroni

Pasta and macaroni may look alike to us and but the former is longer and slender and the latter is shorter and curved. The ingredients used for making pasta include semolina flour, egg, salt and water and then the pasta sheet is shaped variously according to the requirement. Macaroni is one kind of pasta, others being penne, spaghetti, and macaroni. 

Journey Of Pasta

The worldwide famous pasta has been in existence since the 1st century AD, as is evident from the writings of Horace, who mentions fine sheets of fried dough, Lagana, which was an everyday food at that time. Further, in the 2nd century AD, Athenaeus of Naucratis provides a similar recipe. However, the pasta is said to have ventured to Italy in the 13th century with the growing trading in the Mediterranean region. In the 14th and 15th centuries, dried pasta became popular for its easy storage. This allowed people to store pasta on ships when exploring the New World.

Preparation: 40 minutes

Cooking: 30 minutes

Servings: 2 persons

Ingredients:

  • 1 tbsp oil 
  • 1 onion (chopped)
  • 1 tsp garlic (minced)
  • 1 tsp ginger (minced)
  • 1 capsicum (chopped)
  • ½  zucchini (chopped)
  • 3-4 button mushroom (chopped)
  • ⅓  cup chicken sausage (chopped)
  • ¼  tsp black pepper powder
  • 2 tomatoes (pureed )
  • 1 tsp red chilli powder 
  • ⅛  tsp jaggery powder 
  • ½  tsp cumin seeds  powder
  • ½  tsp garam masala powder
  • ¼  cup salted water
  • Cooked macaroni 
  • 2 tbsp processed cheese (grated)
  • For cooking macaroni :
  • Water 
  • Salt
  • 1 cup macaroni pasta

Method:

  • Heat oil in a pan and add onions and fry until slightly golden. Simultaneously, boil macaroni on another stove with salt until cooked.
  • To the onion, add minced ginger and garlic and saute until the raw smell goes off
  • To this add capsicum and zucchini and saute this for 2 minutes on a high flame
  • Then add mushrooms to this and chopped chicken sausages
  • Then add black pepper to it and saute for 2-4 minutes on medium flame
  • Then add garam masala and cumin powder and stir well with the veggies and chicken and allow them to cook for a few minutes
  • Add a ladle of hot pasta liquid to the veggies in the pan
  • When the pasta is well cooked add them to the veggies in the pan and combine everything well
  • Add parmesan cheese to the cooked pasta and stir it and serve hot

You can add vegetables of your choice to the pasta and can choose to skip the chicken. Adding ladles of hot starchy water of pasta to the vegetable saucier, thickened and luscious to eat. This pasta platter is just a perfect treat for our Indian sensibility of spicing up most things in our cuisine.