Like me do you guys too have the same confusion every other evening? What to cook for dinner?? At home rice and roti cannot be made on a daily basis. I usually make dosa, idli, puttu, appam etc on a rotation basis but there are some days when you don’t feel like eating any of those. That’s when we try penne pasta and spaghetti.

As we were on a weight loss regime I wanted to make something healthy yet interesting and that’s how I bought these beautiful whole penne pasta.

Most of the time I make pasta using sauces and this time I wanted to keep it simple yet tasty. Let me share my version of whole wheat penne pasta with cheese and mushrooms

Ingredients:

Whole wheat penne pasta: 2 cups

Mushrooms: 1 cup (thinly sliced)

Onion: 1 large

Processed Cheese: 2 tablespoons or as per your taste

Herbs: I used rosemary, thyme, and mixed herbs

Olive oil: 1-2 tablespoon

Black pepper: 1- 2 teaspoon

Salt

Method:

• Cook pasta as per the instructions in the packet. (Add salt while cooking pasta)
• Once pasta is cooked, strain and keep aside. Don’t throw away the pasta water.
• Heat olive oil olive in a  thick bottom pan and sauté finely chopped onions in it until it’s caramelized.
• Now add thinly sliced mushrooms to the onions and saute well.
• Sprinkle 1 teaspoon freshly ground pepper and saute occasionally until mushrooms are done.
• Now add cooked pasta to this and mix well.
• All the dry herbs of your choice and add 1 or 2 teaspoons of pasta water if necessary to retain the moisture in pasta.
• Taste pasta in between and add salt/ pepper/ dry herbs if necessary.
• Finally, add grated cheese and serve hot.

 

Tips:

1. You can try this recipe with normal pasta, macaroni or spaghetti.
2. You can add any cheese of your choice instead of processed cheese.
3. Try to play with flavors with the herb mix available with you.
4. Make sure the pasta is not overcooked or undercooked.
5. Add a teaspoon of fresh cream for a creamy texture. I ran out of fresh cream while I prepared this.
6. Add some chilli flakes if you want a spicier pasta.

Serve the pasta hot with some extra cheese garnish on top. Hope you liked my simple whole wheat penne pasta recipe.