Red sauce Spaghetti/Pasta is so attractive in color and so good in taste. Homemade sauce is fresh and healthy without any preservatives or artificial colors. Addition of salt is reduced, and spices could be customized. Naturally colored and flavored with fresh ingredients. In my home, adults prefer “Red sauce” pasta, yet kids prefer “White sauce” pasta(link) as it is too creamy and cheesy. Though they prefer white sauce, they never said no to red sauce 😉 To entice them I often make Red sauce Spaghetti and the noodle-shape entices them to eat more. Be it red or white, I load my pasta pan with lots of vegetables and give a cheesy finish. And kids finish off pasta along with all the vegetables, without any complaints.
Spaghetti | Red sauce pasta
Prep time
Cook time
Total time
Serves: 4
Ingredients
Base ingredient:
- Spaghetti - handful
Vegetables:
- Carrot - 1 big or ½ cup chopped
- Beans - 10 singles or ½ cup chopped
- Peas - ¼ cup
- Corn - ¼ cup
- Color peppers - ½ of big
For sauce:
- Tomatoes - 3 to 4 big & well-ripened
- Garlic clove - 1 or 2
- Dry red chilli - 1 or 2
- Bydagi Chilli - 1 or 2
- Red bell pepper - ½ of big
- Olive oil - 1 tbsp (if roasting in oven)
Spices:
- Pepper powder - ¼ to ½ tsp Pepper powder
- Turmeric powder - 1 pinch
- Oregano - ½ tsp
- Basil - ½ tsp
Other ingredients:
- Olive Oil - 1 tbsp
- Water - 3 to 4 cups
- Salt - 1 tsp or as required
- Sugar - 1 tsp(optional)
Topping:
- Mozzarella/Parmesan cheese - ¼ block or more
Instructions
Red sauce:
- Grind all the items given under "For sauce" in a mixie jar to a smooth paste.
- To elevate the taste, you shall bake all the items given under "For sauce" in oven @400F for 45 mins and finally broil it for 2 to 3 mins, if you like the barbequed smell. Then cool down this and grind in mixie to smooth paste.
Pasta:
- In a pan, add 3 to 4 cups along with ½ tsp salt and ½ tsp oil. Let it boil.
- Once it comes to rolling boil, add spaghetti sticks/other pasta and cook in medium heat. If using spaghetti, once the lower part of sticks wilt, immerse the whole sticks into water. Cook till "Al dente" time mentioned in the pack.
- Once cooked, drain the water and keep aside. I usually drain in a big sieve and keep a bowl under to collect dripping water.
Red sauce pasta:
- Parallelly, in another pan, add oil. Once hot, add chopped carrot and beans along with 1 tsp sugar and ¼ tsp salt. Fry in medium-high heat for a minute.
- Then add peas, corn and Pepper powder. Fry for 1 minute.
- Add ground sauce along with a pinch of turmeric powder and ¼ tsp salt. Fry till raw smell of tomato and garlic goes and the vegetables are cooked (not mushy but lil crunchy). If using baked sauce, add once the vegetables are almost cooked and just fry for 2 minutes.
- Add dried oregano and basil leaves and fry for a minute.
- Add cooked and drained pasta/spaghetti and cook in low heat for a couple of mins, until all are blended well.
- Fry chopped capsicum/bell peppers in a separate pan with lil oil and add to the pasta pan.
- Grate and add Mozzarella/Parmesan cheese and mix all. Heat until cheese melts.
Notes
1.Use groundnut or olive oil.
2.If you like to bake the sauce ingredients, then bake it in the night and cool in the fridge overnight. You shall grind it in the morning and make the sauce. Or else, you can make the sauce in the night and refrigerate the sauce too, to be used in the morning. I personally like baked sauce more.
3.I use whole wheat or red lentil or chickpeas or brown rice pasta varieties.
4.I add raw brown sugar as it gives a slight sweetish taste to entice kids. You shall replace sugar with jaggery.
5.Chop vegetables into tiny pieces for faster cooking. Splash oil or water while cooking vegetables to avoid browning.
6.If using frozen peas and corn, add to a bowl along with water and microwave for 1 minute, drain the water and then add.
7.Increase or decrease dry red chillies and pepper powder as per your spice level.
8.If making for kids, use color bell peppers to add sweetish crunches.
2.If you like to bake the sauce ingredients, then bake it in the night and cool in the fridge overnight. You shall grind it in the morning and make the sauce. Or else, you can make the sauce in the night and refrigerate the sauce too, to be used in the morning. I personally like baked sauce more.
3.I use whole wheat or red lentil or chickpeas or brown rice pasta varieties.
4.I add raw brown sugar as it gives a slight sweetish taste to entice kids. You shall replace sugar with jaggery.
5.Chop vegetables into tiny pieces for faster cooking. Splash oil or water while cooking vegetables to avoid browning.
6.If using frozen peas and corn, add to a bowl along with water and microwave for 1 minute, drain the water and then add.
7.Increase or decrease dry red chillies and pepper powder as per your spice level.
8.If making for kids, use color bell peppers to add sweetish crunches.
If you see all the 3 pictures in this post, the color and wetness depend upon the type of tomatoes used and also the amount of sauce used. Addition of roasted red bell pepper enhances the color as in below pic. The first pic uses raw ingredients sauce, while the second and third pics use roasted ingredients sauce.
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