My Amazing Basic Pasta Recipe (with or without mashed potatoes)

I love pasta. I love it extra special if its creamy and juicy and full of flavour. Today I had an inspiration strike me in the afternoon, while lunch was almost done. This basic recipe can make any italian pasta of your choice, the best ever, depending on what you add in it afterwards.

Choose any kind of pasta you like. By all means, play around with ideas and get as creative as you can with food, that's the good thing about cooking, cause even if you go wrong once, you'll know what NOT to do next time, and hey, if you're right, then you're RIGHT! Kudos to you!

I used macaronni, cause that was the only one on the house. Boiled it with some salt and a spoonful of butter. You can use oil too if you like. Then in a separate pot, I boiled some wonderful golden potatoes for my mashed potatoes, cause I was having a huge craving for mashed potatoes with my pasta. Then got things together for the pasta. Finely chopped half an onion, a couple of cloves of garlic. And for mashed potatoes some corriander leaves, also finely chopped. It's fun to see your leaves diminishing in size as you chop, chop, chop them up. And the fragrance released from the oils of the leaves is just amazing, and will make your hands smell so nice.

Ok, so, then I got a pan ready for the sauce that goes with the macaronni. I made white sauce, which is so simple, yet so underrated, because, THAT I think is the magic ingredient to any pasta! Got together about two tablespoons of butter, let it melt on high medium heat. Added one and a half tablespoon of flour. Mixed it well with a wooden spoon. Slowly and in very small amounts added milk to this mixture, not adding more till the previously added milk wasn't completely mixed in, so as not to leave any blobs in it. Kept on doing this till the sauce gave a runny consituency, added salt and pepper, and my favourite, oregano - just a pinch and mashed between the palms of my hands. Superb! Some people also add cheese to their sauce, but I don't add any. There really is no need! :)

With the flame now set on medium, I added the boiled pasta into the sauce, so that all of the sauce coated it gorgeosly. And you're done!

Now, for the mashed potatoes, peeled them off one by one, broke them up in rough little pieces and all of it went into a big yellow bowl. Then with a fork (yes, a fork, it makes great mashed potatoes! A simple utensil like a fork can do wonders!) mashed them all up, and while they're still hot after being taken out of the boiling water, added butter in it, so it melted into the potatoes so wonderfully, and beautifully, I could see the golden butter abssorbing into my potatoes, and becoming so soft, I knew that if I put some in my mouth that it would melt almost instantly and most deliciously. Next, the chopped corrainder. Then for some salt and pepper, and the secret of my mashed potatoes, a little bit of milk, also added in intervals, and mixed together well, and some feta good cheese, only a spoonful, to add a little bit of sour taste.

Voila!

Good variations can be made by adding pieces of chicken, mushrooms, olives, or pepperonni to your pasta. And I didn't follow any recipe here, I followed the basic structure, and then trusted my instincts with it. That's the best thing you can do!

And that was followed by a delicious, healthy cucumber and vegetable youghurt Mummy made! Mmm... perfect lunch on a hot summer day!