Tricolor Pasta (Pasta with Roasted Vegetables)

Tri-Color Pasta Recipe
Tri-Color Pasta

I wanted to make something in tricolor for the “Independence Day Special” post. As usual, I turned to Almighty Google for ideas. I came across this salad recipe made using carrots, baby corn, and broccoli, which gave me an idea for this tricolor pasta recipe–pasta in white sauce with roasted vegetables. I wanted to make it ahead of time so that I could share it with you’ll at least one day before the Independence day.

When I’m busy, Devansh is usually pretty content playing with his aaji (grandmom) or by himself. But the minute I’m in the kitchen or on the phone, he’ll start acting cranky, demanding my attention. And that’s why most of my recipes are shortcut phataphat recipes that don’t require more than 15-20 minutes of your time. ;-) I had to make this dish on a weekend because that’s the only time I can afford the luxury of cooking for more than 20-25 minutes at a stretch. On a weekend Kalpesh is free to keep him busy and out of my hair. :-)

I didn’t add any vegetables in the sauce as I wanted the pasta to be white. Although, cheese added on top of pasta anyways makes the pasta layer look white; so in retrospect I think I could have added vegetables in the sauce. My logic was since the pasta is accompanied by roasted vegetables, Devansh’ll get his veggie serving. But Devansh didn’t like chewing the roasted vegetables. He just played with them but didn’t eat them. I guess next time I’m going to have to add veggies in the sauce. Kalpesh and I fought for the vegetables though. I especially loved the garlic flavored broccoli.

I hope you like this tricolor pasta recipe, and your kiddos like the presentation and taste. If any of you moms are planning on cooking something in tricolor, please share the pics with me. Send the pics in a message to my Mum-Mum Time Facebook page and I’ll put them up on my wall. Also, if you are going to dress up your kids in tricolor for the Independence Day and you would like to share their pics with the rest of the moms, send in those too. Till then, Jai Hind. :-)

Tricolor Pasta (Pasta with Roasted Vegetables)

Print Recipe
Make snack time fun time for your kids with this tricolor pasta recipe. Recipe of pasta in healthy white sauce with roasted carrots, broccoli and mushrooms.
Author Mukta Tikekar

Ingredients

Pasta in White Sauce

  • 3/4 th cup pasta I used durum wheat fusilli
  • 1 tsp wheat flour or refined flour
  • 3/4 th cup milk
  • 1 cheese cube grated
  • 1 clove of garlic grated or minced
  • 1 tbsp butter or olive oil
  • 1/5 th tsp dried herbs of your choice I used oregano, basil, and parsley
  • Salt to taste

Roasted Vegetables

  • 2 cloves of garlic grated or minced
  • 2 small carrots cut into sticks
  • 1 mushroom cut into half circular slices
  • 3/4 th cup broccoli florets separate broccoli into small bite-sized florets
  • Salt to taste
  • 1/5 th tsp black pepper powder
  • 2 tbsp butter or olive oil
  • 1-2 drops of olive oil

Instructions

Pasta in White Sauce

  • Cook pasta as per the instructions on the packet.
  • While the pasta is cooking, prepare your white sauce. Heat a non-stick pan on low flame and then add 1 tbsp butter, add grated garlic and sauté for about half a minute.
  • Add wheat flour and sauté till it’s cooked properly to ensure you don’t get raw flour taste in the sauce. This should take a minute or two. (Honestly this time I wouldn’t have minded using refined flour because only li’l bit was needed and because I wanted to get proper white color; but I didn’t have any at home. You all know how I feel about using refined flour while cooking. ;-))
  • Add milk and mix properly such that no lumps remain in the mixture.
  • Add half of grated cheese and mix it well.
  • Add salt and dried herbs, mix the white sauce properly, and then turn off heat.
  • Drain water from the pasta and set it aside. Prepare the roasted vegetables before you add cooked pasta in the white sauce or it’ll get cold.
  • After your roasted veggies are ready, heat the white sauce, add cooked pasta, and mix the pasta with the white sauce.

Roasted Vegetables

  • Heat a non-stick pan on low flame, grease it with 1-2 drops of olive oil, and then roast mushroom pieces on medium flame for about 5 minutes. (You’ll need 2 pieces for the presentation; you can add the remaining pieces to the pasta at the time of eating.)
  • While you are roasting the mushrooms, boil 1-2 cups of water (enough to blanch broccoli florets) with some salt added to it.
  • After the water reaches boiling point, add broccoli florets. (I used organic carrots so I just washed them before cutting them. But I didn’t find organic broccoli and so soaked it in water for 10 minutes before separating it into florets.)
  • After 5-6 minutes remove the broccoli florets from boiling water and immerse it in cold water to prevent further cooking. Don’t overcook the broccoli as you want to retain its green color. (Poke a knife/fork in it to check if it’s become tender before removing it from the boiling water.)
  • Heat a non-stick pan on low flame, add 1 tbsp butter and half of grated garlic, sauté for half a minute and then add broccoli florets.
  • Season with salt and pepper (powder) and sauté for 5-6 minutes.
  • Transfer the broccoli on to a plate.
  • Repeat steps 5-7 for carrots. (I didn’t blanch them as I wanted them slightly crunchy.) You will need to sauté them for a longer time since they aren’t blanched. Say around 8-10 minutes. (Carrots need to be cooked till that they’re tender enough to bite into but not too mushy.)

Presentation

  • Transfer hot pasta on to the serving plate. Make sure you put the pasta in the center of the plate as you’ll be adding carrots above the pasta and broccoli below.
  • Add the remaining grated cheese on the pasta. (Pasta needs to be hot to melt the cheese.)
  • Now arrange the roasted carrot sticks and broccoli on the plate.
  • Now that you’ve got the tricolors on the plate, finish by adding the Ashok Chakra, that is the mushroom slices in the center of the pasta layer. There your tricolor pasta dish is ready. :-)

7 thoughts on “Tricolor Pasta (Pasta with Roasted Vegetables)”

  1. Yeah Sangeetha…this was the "Independence Day special" recipe…have you checked the cover photo of the mummumtime Facebook page? Pics of few more tricolor dishes there :-)

    Hope your li'l doll like the pasta…take care :-)

    Reply

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