Spicy Cilantro Sauce Pasta

This is yet another fusion recipe of mine – This time, it is the fusion of an herb, Cilantro, not usually associated with Italian foods. But Italians foods have a heavy hand of parsley, a cilantro look-alike. No offense meant to the herb or the cuisines that swear by it, but parsley is like a poor cousin of cilantro in taste and especially in flavor – I have never quite got what additional flavors parsley brings to a dish, but then I am no expert and ultimately it boils down to individual tastes and preferences. Alls I know is my olfactory nerves are pretty pleased with the sweet and somewhat sour smells Cilantro, a by word in most Indian recipes - the King of Garnish… It is also the common herbal thread, if you will, between Thai, Indian and Mexican foods.

But here is an interesting tidbit about Cilantro from an Italian - http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art37500.asp

The other thing was Mawa has been lying in my cheese box in the fridge for over a week and I have been scouring recipes for it, but most of them were for sweets and I found one or two yummy kofta recipes – but as you all may know, that is a time consuming process – so I figured why not use milk solids, which is what Mawa or Khoya is and see what how it goes. Nothing ventured, nothing gained…

Ingredients

1 cup of crushed/chopped fresh cilantro

2- 3 green chilies (2 if they are thai chilies, 3 if they are Indian)

½ block of Mawa or Khoya (grated with the smaller blades to look like Parmagiana)

1 cup of milk

2 crushed red dry peppers

4 cloves of garlic

3 cups of pasta of choice –I used mini Farfalle (cooked al dente)

2 tsp olive oil

Preparation

In a sauce pan, add 1 tsp of oil

Cool and grind this

Add the milk

Stir in the mawa slowly

Spin this in the blender until it become a smooth creamy sauce

Add some salt and grind some pepper if desired

I always cook the pasta with a tsp of oil and a dash of salt

Drain and add the sauce and toss until all the pasta is covered with the sauce

I also roasted some yellow squash and zucchini with some garlic, and Italian seasoning  and topped the paste with it – You’ve got your greens, you full share of veggies and carbs and fat protein from the Mawa –  eat your way to healthy folks –

This again goes to Krithi's Kitchen Event - Herbs & Flowers - Cilantro

Spice Ur Senses,

 Nivedita's Only original Recipes

And to Tamalapakku's Event Design a Menu