Penne In Red Wine Sauce, Pasta For Adults

It was the first restaurant we tried in Mumbai after wedding. It was one classy, over priced Italian restaurant- serving huge collections of pasta, wine and pizza. He said- let’s order, while I was still gazing the menu card and was unable to decide what I wanted to eat. C’mon choose he interrupted, you already took the big decision of marrying the right guy, deciding the dish should not take this much time.  I smiled broadly and looked at him behind the menu card. He said, fine I will order for us. I nodded in affirmative. And that was when we tasted Penne in Red Wine Sauce for the first time. Till date we cherish it.

A way to man’s heart is through his stomach and when he is not in a good mood, the tasty food reaches the stomach and heart faster. Too much work in office, too much things happening with the family back in India, too much pending tasks can make a man frustrated. So to ease down his mind I planned to replicate the pasta we had in Mumbai. And I was right, it diverted his mind from all the tensions and we enjoyed the pasta in the balcony chatting about our 1^st year of marriage. Sometimes it is nice to walk down the memory lane and think how beautiful life is. Enjoy- you might not even realize that you are making memories.

Oh man don’t you just love the shapes of pasta? Which is your favorite one? Pasta to Indians is one pot meal, quick and filling dinner idea. The same is my story, when I am lazy- making pasta pops in my mind- just chop some vegetables and you are good to go. I always keep roasted bell pepper pasta sauce ready to mix with pasta. Sometimes I make spaghetti in arbiata sauce from scratch but pasta is atleast once a week at our place.

Penne In Red Wine Sauce is for adults, it is boozy, spicy and sharp. Don’t bother to buy some expensive red wine, infact any dry red wine will do. If you don’t know what dry wine is, just read the label. I wanted to give authentic Italian touch so I used Italian wine form Naked Wines. People in the UK, do see Naked Wines website HERE- the collection and price is awesome. Red wine sauce is great for wine lovers or people who want to develop the taste for red wine. When red wine mixes with garlic, pepper and tomatoes it provides richness and amazing depth of flavour to finished dish. The alcohol in the wine will cook off as the mixture simmers, leaving a robust sauce. Do try; I am sure your partners will be happy.

Ingredients:

1 and 1/2 teaspoons minced fresh garlic/lehsun

2 tablespoons olive oil

1/2 cup red wine

6 tomatoes

Salt to taste

1 teaspoon dried basil

1/4 teaspoon red chilli flakes

1/2 teaspoon dried oregano

1 teaspoon sugar

1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

3 cups of penne

1/3 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese

Method:

Heat huge pot with lot of water. When water comes to boil, add penne pasta with little salt. Cook and let it boil till it is soft but not mushy. Drain and keep aside.

Heat oil in pan and sauté garlic till it becomes brown over medium heat.

Chop 4 tomatoes finely and make puree of 2 tomatoes.

In the pan add tomatoes, red chili flakes, basil, oregano, sugar, black pepper and salt.

Add red wine and cover. Reduce heat to low, and simmer, stirring occasionally, 20 minutes or until thickened.

Finally mix the sauce with penne pasta and cheese.

Serve hot.

Notes:

You can use any kind of pasta.

Use 2 cans of tomatoes instead of fresh tomatoes.

Use 1 tablespoon of fresh basil or oregano for more flavours instead of dried.

Use non stick pan for making sauce.

This sauce can be stored in the fridge for 2 weeks.