Elbow Pasta in White Sauce

I have always wanted to try and create a nice white sauce pasta and spice it up. My adventure began with a number of clicks on recipes and some friends blogs. I rarely follow the recipes to the dot and always go with my instincts which so far have not let me down. Now this is how i went about doing it.

Ingredients for Bechamel Sauce

Flour (Maida) 2 tbsp

Butter 21/2 tbsp

Warm Milk 1/2 cup

Water 2-3 cups

Cheese Cubes 2 ( i used amul processed cheese)

Oregano 1 tsp

Chilli Flakes 1 tsp

Pepper powder 1 tsp

Salt to taste

Chilli Powder 1/2 tsp

Egg 1 no

Making the Sauce

In a pan, heat the butter till it melts and add flour to it and mix well so that no lumps are formed. Cook until the mixture turns  light yellow in color and now add in the warm milk (neither cold nor hot). Keep stirring and it will thicken and bubbles will pop up.Now add oregano, pepper and chilli powder and mix well, the sauce will thicken further. Thin it down with some water a and keep stirring it, now grate in 1 cheese cube and mix until cheese integrates into the sauce.  Now add the chilli flakes and salt, turn the heat off.

Cooking the Pasta

Now most of us know that we need to have a pot of boiling water to cook pasta. During one of my searched i came across another technique which uses least amount of water. In a flat pan add the pasta, cover it with cold water just enough to immerse the pasta, add salt and oil and put it on the stove. You will have to stir them initially so that they don't stick to the bottom of the pan. After that let them cook through until they are cooked enough. One can also use the residual water to the sauce.

Now that we have the pasta cooked, just add the sauce to it and mix well under low flame. Turn off the heat and add one beaten egg to the pasta and stirring  it continuously so that it mixes well. Voila garnish it with cheese gratings and enjoy it.

I got my 6yr old niece who doesn't like pastas to taste it and she finished a bowl full saying it was good.