Chettinad Vegetable Pasta / Masala Pasta / Pasta Chettinad

Pasta Chettinad Style

I know this recipe has nothing to do with authentic Chettinad but worth to try it. This is my hubby's favorite pasta dish, if your family is fond of pasta and wants to try a South Indian style pasta just give it a try and let me know your feed back:-)

Ingredients
Any kind of pasta( macaroni, shells etc) - 1.5 cups
Mixed vegetables( cut into bite size pieces) - 1 cup
Paneer ( cut into bite size pieces) - 1/2 cup ( optional)
Onion medium ( chopped) - 1 no
Tomato medium ( chopped) - 1 no
Curry leaves and coriander leaves - required
Oil - 2 tbsp ( +/-)
Salt to taste
Water - 1/4 cup

Chettinad masala paste ingredients
Ginger and garlic paste - 1.5 tsp
Coriander powder - 1 tsp
Cumin powder - 1/4 tsp
Fennel / Sombu powder - 1 tsp
Red chilli powder - 1 tsp ( +/-)
Turmeric power - 1/4 tsp
Grated coconut - 4 tbsp
Cashew nuts - 4 nos
Cinnamon stick - 1" piece

Chettinad Vegetable Pasta

Method
1. Cook pasta in large pot of boiling water for 7 mins, drain and rinse in cold water couple of times. Drain the pasta well, mix and toss pasta with 1 tsp oil, set aside.
2. Grind the ingredients given under Chettinad masala paste in a mixer grinder / blender to smooth paste adding few tsp of water.
3.Heat oil in a pan or kadai, when hot add onions and curry leaves, sauté until onions are transparent.
4. Reduce pan heat, add the ground masala paste to the pan and cook on medium heat for 4 to 5 mins stirring occasionally( so that masala doesn't stick to pan and get burned).
5. Once the masala is well cooked, add the chopped vegetables to the pan and sauté well for 2 mins until the vegetables are coated with masala.
6. Add the chopped tomatoes to pan and cook until tomatoes are soft.
7. Add water to the pan, increase pan heat and bring the gravy to boil.( if adding paneer pieces add  them once the gravy is boiling).
8. Season the gravy with required salt, cover pan with lid, cook until vegetables are slightly cooked and semi thick gravy is formed.
9. Turn of pan heat and add pasta to the gravy and mix( toss) well.
10. Garnish Chettinad vegetable pasta with chopped coriander leaves and serve hot.

Chef's tips
1. Do not cook pasta very soft and mushy. Pasta needs to be cooked until aldent.
2. Once gravy is cooked remove from heat and then toss in the pasta to the gravy, if the pasta is added to gravy on heat, pasta will start cooking again and will become soft and mushy.
3. Make sure the veggies retain their crunchiness.
4. You can replace vegetables with chicken cut into bite size pieces( in that case add more water and cook chicken for 10 to 15 mins until fully cooked).

Vegetable Masala Pasta