Kids Pasta - Car, Train, Bike, Plane, and Wheels Pasta with Crispy Basil and Cheese

We all love pasta a lot and my son loves it. I used to feel bad that he does not like pizza, which is sometimes a rescue food, when I am not in mood to cook. But now I am happy that he likes pasta a lot and changed my rescue food from pizza to pasta. So where ever I go I try to get some beautiful and interesting shaped pastas. This time I went to a beautiful store, where they sell locally made, healthy and authentic Italian ingredients and most of them were organic...as soon as I saw these shaped pastas, I grabbed it though it was bit expensive, because I know Anush loves cars, wheels, train etc., He is mad of cars and now he can tell almost all the cars names, his fav one being Mustang, Porsche and Mazda...all being race cars.. :-) My brother too loves cars..Anush is just like him. The wheel pasta was whole wheat. He enjoyed a lot eating this pasta.


Ingredients:
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1 1/2 cup shaped Pasta (car, train, plain and bike)
1 1/2 cup Wheel shaped Pasta (this pasta was Whole Wheat)
2 cups Basil and Tomato Pasta Sauce
Salt and Pepper to taste
1/4 tsp Red Pepper Flakes
1/4 cup grated Parmesan Cheese
1 big bunch Basil Leaves
2 pods Garlic crushed
1 tsp Olive Oil
1 tbsp Butter


Method:
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1. In a large pot add 1/2 full of water and bring to a boil, add generous amount of salt and add the pasta, stir once and let it cook for about 7 mins or until the pasta is Al Dente.
Note: Whole wheat pasta cooks faster than the regular ones so make sure you check regularly.

2. In the meantime in a pan add oil and butter and when the butter starts to melt, add the basil leaves and garlic and saute until crisp for about 5-6 mins.

3. Remove the basil and garlic on to a plate leaving rest of the oil in the same pan, in this way you get crispy basil and basil and garlic infused oil. :-)
4. In the same pan add the pasta sauce and simmer it by adding pepper powder and red chili flakes.

5. After the pasta is cooked, strain the pasta water, reserve some to add it to the sauce, if it gets thicker. Run the pasta under cold water so that  it stops cooking further.

6. Add the pasta into the sauce in the pan and mix gently without breaking the pasta.

7. Add the pasta water too to make a little bit thinner sauce, now check on the salt, as the pasta water has enough salt, if you need more, you can add after this.

8. Now cook for about a min or two, transfer it to a serving plate, sprinkle with parmesan cheese and crispy basil over the top.


Sending this recipe to Reva for the Event: "Herbs and Flowers: Basil" and "Pasta Pizza and Noodles hosted by Jayasri - "Samayal Arai" and Pari - "Foodelicious".

 

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