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.





Finally, add grated cheese and serve hot.

Tips:
- You can try this recipe with normal pasta, macaroni or spaghetti.
- You can add any cheese of your choice instead of processed cheese.
- Try to play with flavors with the herb mix available with you.
- Make sure the pasta is not overcooked or undercooked.
- Add a teaspoon of fresh cream for a creamy texture. I ran out of fresh cream while I prepared this.
- 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.