Pasta Primavera & Garlic bread

Primavera means ‘spring’. This pasta dish is a delicious combination of penne pasta drowning in a medley of sautéed  vegetables & rich cream sauce. I like to use penne for this dish as the pipe- shaped pasta helps hold up the cream sauce and you get enough sauce  and vegetable with every bite ! 🙂 A side of garlic bread is all you need to round this off into a meal. In all, you’ll want to make it a regular in your dinner rotation or weekend specials!

Ingredients:

• Cauliflower florets – 1/2 cup
• Carrots – cubed – 1 cup
• Green peas – 1/2 cup
• Green beans – french cut – 1 cup
• 1 cup mixed bell pepper (red, green, yellow)
• Black olives – pitted and chopped – 1/2 cup
• Olive oil
• Italian seasoning
• Black pepper powder
• Salt
• Sugar
• Fresh Cream – 1 tbsp

Directions:

1. Bring water to a rolling boil in a deep saucepan. Once you see bubbles, add the pasta and a pinch of salt. Let it cook for about 9-10 mins until cooked but texture is firm to the touch or  ‘al-dente'(this is an italian term used to describe the stage where pasta is cooked but firm to the touch and still has a bite to it.)
2. Once done, drain the pasta, toss with a dash of olive oil and set aside.
3. Heat some olive oil in a wide bottomed pan.
4. Add crushed garlic to the olive oil. Sauté for a few seconds – make sure not to burn the garlic.
5. Add the chopped vegetables and saute with some salt, cook until soft but firm. This is so that the individual vegetables stand out on their own in the dish.
6. Once the veggies are done, turn the flame down to really low and add the cream. I did a mixture of cream and skimmed milk to achieve the right ‘saucy’ kind of consistency. Mix well.
7. Add salt, pepper, sugar to taste. Sprinkle Italian seasoning to taste and mix.

Garlic bread

1. Buy a fresh loaf of ciabatta or baguette. Cut into wedges per your taste.
2. In a cup, mix 1tsp italian seasoning, freshly crushed garlic , olive oil(or butter), salt.
3. Rub this mixture over the bread and put in the refrigerator for 15 mins to firm up.
4. Fry this bread on the tawa until golden brown.

TIPS & TWEAKS

1. You can add cheese to the garlic bread for another yum version.
2. Always serve hot because the cream sauce tends to firm up when cold. If keeping overnight, it can be diluted using milk and reheated to obtain the saucy consistency.

Serve pasta hot with a side of garlic bread to excited oohs and ahhs 😀 !

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