Creamless Creamy Penne Pasta

I mentioned a lot of times in my posts, that I am an Italian food fanatic. I can gorge over pizzas and pastas daily 😀 I have shared many number of pizza recipes – some the authentic international way and some with an Indian twist like uttapam pizza and pizza pancakes.

Today I am sharing  my tomato-based creamy penne pasta, but of course, without using cream. I used roasted nuts to get a creamy and silky texture and this is a very quick recipe with few vegetables and of course pasta sauce. You may check the recipe for the sauce at my link – Marinara/pasta sauce.

Penne pasta is my favorite kind of pasta. You can use any pasta shapes that is your favorite. I sometimes use skinny pasta like my pasta with grapes and skinny pasta with tomatoes. Another recipe using penne uses a classic hollandaise sauce and lots of broccoli – penne in white sauce.

Sometimes, I even like to eat pasta with soups just so that I need not gain all the calories from pasta and at the sametime satisfy my pasta cravings. Minestrone soup is a classic Italian soup and I even cooked this for a cooking competition held by Powai – Powaifest 2015.

Ingredients:

Pasta – 2 cups (I used penne)

Pasta/marinara sauce – 1 cup (check my recipe)

Butter/oil – 1 tbsp

Garlic cloves – 2 (finely chopped)

Roasted nuts (almonds, pistachios) – 2 tbsp each

Mixed Italian herbs (rosemary, thyme, basil etc) – 1 tsp, optional

Red chili flakes – ½ tsp, optional

Cherry tomatoes/regular tomatoes – ¼ cup (I used cherry tomatoes)

Spinach/palak leaves – a handful

Onion – 1, small (finely chopped)

Coriander leaves – 1 tbsp (very finely chopped)

Salt – to taste

Pepper powder – 1 tsp

Procedure:

1. Boil about 4-5 cups of water in a large vessel. Add a pinch of salt and ½ tsp oil to it. This will prevent the pasta from sticking together.
2. Add the pasta and cook for about 10 minutes. Make sure that you do not overcook the pasta.
3. Strain the pasta and place it in cold water. Keep aside for now.
4. Blend the roasted nuts with 3-4 tbsp water to form a smooth paste. Set aside.
5. Heat oil in a deep-pan and add the oil/butter, red chili flakes and garlic. Saute for a minute.
6. Then add the onions and fry for another minute.
7. Add the cherry tomatoes, spinach leaves, mixed herbs and give a good stir.
8. Pour in the pasta sauce, salt and pepper to taste, roasted nut paste and let it come to a boil. Then add the cooked pasta, coriander leaves and remove from heat.
9. Serve hot with any crunchy bread on the side!!

Note:

1. I added pitted black olives just before serving, but it is completely optional.
2. Placing the boiled pasta in cold water is important to prevent it from sticking together.
3. Do add parmesan cheese if you have it. It gives a good salty and nutty taste.
4. Instead of spinach, you may add fresh basil leaves too.

You can check my collection of pizza recipes – stove-top pizza, pizza with garlic bread crust, tree pizza, easy coin pizza (stove-top), dessert pizza, deep dish pizza, thin crust pizza. Check out my essential pizza recipes — how to make pizza dough and homemade pizza sauce.

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