Masala Pasta, call it curried pasta, pasta Indian style or whatever, this is pasta cooked in a spicy tomato sauce. Growing up in India, this dish was my favorite weekend breakfast. For years, I didn’t even know that pasta was from Italy. At home in India, we simply called it macaroni because we always used elbow macaroni.

Masala Pasta is another great example of how Indian cuisine adapted a foreign ingredient and made it its own. This reminds of one time when I was in college, my best friend, who was from Mauritius, would come over every once in a while to get away from the not-so-exciting cafeteria food to enjoy my mom’s home cooking. So when I told him that my mom was going to be making macaroni, he was excited because he loved the macaroni that his mum made back home. But when realized that this was macaroni cooked in spices, he was super disappointed since he was expecting something completely different and more along the lines of a traditional pasta that his mom prepared. And I remember his comment about Indians wanting to cook everything with spice. Needless to say he didn’t have much of the macaroni and I got to finish most of it.

In this recipe, I used elbow macaroni, however, you can use any pasta, including whole wheat pasta. I mix it up and use a different pasta every time. This dish is best served with bread that can be used to soak up the sauce. And thinking of that reminds me of another yummy recipe, Masala Bread, that I’ll post another time; it’s essentially made with the same sauce.

What differentiates Masala Pasta from a traditional Italian style pasta is the use of Turmeric Powder, Cumin Seeds and Cilantro.

Ingredients

16 oz packet of Elbow Macaroni or any other pasta
2-3 large ripe tomatoes
4-5 garlic cloves or more if you like garlic
1/2 cup finely chopped cilantro
2-3 tbsp Olive Oil
1/2 tsp Cumin Seeds
1/2 tsp Turmeric
1/2 tsp Kashmiri Red Chili Powder or Paprika
1-2 green chillies (optional but recommended if you’d like to make it spicy)
Salt to taste

Preparation

In a blender, puree the tomatoes, garlic and green chillies.

Follow the instructions on the pasta box to cook the pasta. You will be cooking the tomato sauce for about 10-15 minutes. So when you’re about 5 minutes or so into cooking the tomato sauce, you can start boiling water for the pasta. That way pasta and the sauce are both ready at about the same time and just drain the pasta and add it directly to the sauce.

Cooking

Heat the olive oil in a pan on medium heat and when the oil is hot add the cumin seeds. When the cumin seeds start to sizzle pour in the puree into the pan. Add the Turmeric Powder, Red Chili Powder and Salt. You can adjust the salt before you add the pasta. Also, you should account for the salt that you’ve added to the pasta while boiling it. You’re going to need to cook the sauce for about 10-15 minutes and it should start to thicken as the water from the tomatoes starts to evaporate.

Add the cooked pasta to the sauce and you can add about 1/2 to 1 cup of hot water to the sauce so that you have liquid that you can soak up with the bread.

Mix well so that the sauce coats the pasta well and continue cooking for another 3-5 minutes and then add the finely chopped cilantro and mix it in. Turn the heat off and delicious Masala Pasta is ready.

Enjoy!

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