Creamy … Delicious …Quick … Easy! This is the perfect dish for any busy or lazy day!

Today I will start to share one of many posts to come for PASTA; one of my favorite foods on earth. If I am to be stuck alone on an island, I would choose pasta with all its forms, shapes & tastes to be my companion.

The hype for “one pot” pasta has been going on for a while but I was never very interested to try it as all what came to my mind was “how will my pasta taste with all this starch in the sauce?”. Until one day about 8 months ago, I was too lazy to cook; actually lazy to even get out of bed so I thought to myself “it’s time to give this crazy idea a try”. To my surprise, the pasta came out delicious – very creamy as if it had cream but the only thing that went wrong that time was the cooking technique.

I gave it a couple of more trials & did some google research until I found the simplest & easiest method to cook this dish in no time while still perfectly creamy & al dente; not mushy.

All you simply do is cut, dice, chop, mince & throw all in one pot; give it a couple of stirs & voila … lunch is ready :)

Ingredients:

• 500 gm pasta (shells or penne)
• 6 small tomatoes finely diced
• 3 garlic cloves minced
• 1 green bell pepper finely diced
• 1 hot chili pepper finely diced (optional)
• 1/2 tsp dried cilantro
• 4 Heaped Tbsp Tomato Paste
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 2 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp pepper
• 5 cups water at room temperature
• 3/4 cup cilantro leaves chopped
• 1/3 cup parmesan cheese grated

Directions

1. Put all the ingredients in one large pot & stir everything together except for the cilantro leaves & parmesan cheese.
2. Place the pot on high heat on the stove & cover.
3. Once the water boils, remove the cover & reduce the heat to medium
4. Cook the pasta stirring occasionally; to prevent the pasta from sticking, until the water is reduced to quarter & the pasta is al dente (it is supposed to be very creamy at this stage)
5. Turn off the heat, stir in the parmesan cheese & the cilantro leaves.
6. Taste for seasoning & serve immediately with more parmesan cheese on top

Notes: 

•  Most packs of local pasta brands are 400 gm so you will need to add about 1 more pasta cup to have 500 gm pasta as per the recipe
• Because pasta brands vary, if the sauce starts to dry out before the pasta is cooked, you can add another cup water.
• If the pasta is not served immediately, it will get very sticky. To reheat, place the pot on medium/low heat, sprinkle a couple of tablespoons of water on the pasta & stir; it will go back to its creaminess.
• If you are not a fan of cilantro, substitute with fresh parsley.