Pasta in White Sauce

Pasta with white sauce 

Ingredients:

For the sauce

1. Plain flour(Maida) 2 tablespoons
2. Butter 1 tablespoon
3. Milk
4. Cheese(Mozzarella, Leicester or any other of your choice)

For the pasta

1. Pasta of any shape(Fusilli, Penne, Spaghetti or any other shape of your choice) 250 gms
2.  Salt according to taste
3.  Sweetcorn 
4.  Carrots
5.  Olives 
6.  Dried Mint leaves powder/Herb mix of your choice
7.  Pepper

How to prepare:

1. Boil the pasta with water and salt. If you want to infuse your pasta you could add in other bits into the boiling water. My favourite is adding fennel seeds into the boiling water. But you could experiment with anything of your choice like your favourite content. If you like spicy try adding in chilli powder

While the pasta is boiling away, it's time to prepare the sauce. My way is slightly different for preparing the sauce. 

2. Take a tablespoon of butter and melt it in a pan. Make sure you do this on low heat or you could burn the butter. 

3. Add about 2 tablespoons of plain flour and mix well with the butter. Once the flour has fried, you can now add in the milk slowly steering in. Add a little milk and steer continuously making a consistent paste. If this doesn't work for you don't worry.

4. Now add the rest of the milk in steering continuously till you get a uniform mixture. If at this point you're got lumps don't worry. Skip the next step if you don't have lumps.

5. Cool the mixture down by keeping your vessel in a bigger bowl which is filled with cold water, and change the water in a minute or so. Once the mix has sufficiently cooled add into a blender and blend throughly. All your lumps should disappear. Add back into the pan and continue boiling.

6. At this point if you want to add in the cheese into the sauce. If you want to keep it healthy don't add in any cheese. I would then suggest adding more milk if you think your pasta would become a bit dry without the cheese. Try to avoid adding too much of plain flour to thicken the sauce. 

7. If your pasta has finished boiling then take if off and drain into a colander. Keep aside. I usually boil my pasta so its really tender and when I cut it with a knife it just slices through it without any effort. It's upto your personal preference as to how much you want to boil it.

8. At this point the sauce should have a slight boil or should be warm enough. Now add in the rest of the ingredients like Sweetcorn, grated carrot and diced olives. Also add in the salt, pepper and the dry mint powder or herb mix and bring to a boil. 

9. Once boiled bring to a summer and add the drained pasta a little at a time mixing in thoroughly into the sauce.

That's it your pasta is ready. Serve hot with some grated cheese on top and enjoy.