When we think of pasta, the first thing that comes to mind is Italian cuisine. We usually imagine the plate filled with white pasta covered by tomato sauce, before thinking of any other ingredients. However, pasta comes from Asia, not Italy. There are many other ways to eat pasta than with tomato sauce. Below, you will find ideas on how to eat pasta, the next time you run out of tomato sauce.
Pasta: No Tomato Sauce – No Problem!
Pasta is a dish that we often think of cooking when we have nothing else left to eat in the house, or when we want to cook something quickly. We just take the pasta from the pantry and use the tomato sauce we’ve cooked previously or tomato sauce from a can. However, when we find out that we are lacking one of those two ingredients, we either decide to eat something else or run to the store, before it closes, to buy the missing element.
If you don’t have pasta inside the house, it is simply impossible to prepare a pasta dish. However, if you don’t have tomato sauce, don’t worry, there are many other ways to prepare pasta without it. Here are some of the ways you can eat delicious pasta without covering it with tomato sauce.
The Simple Choice: Canned Dice Tomatoes
If you do not have tomato sauce, but your pantry still holds a can of diced tomatoes, then you can make one. To do so, you can decide to purée them first, but you can also place them in a pan and cook them with a little water. They will start to dissolve, and you will then end-up with a thicker tomato sauce, thanks to pieces of tomatoes. To get it to taste the right way, add onions (if you have them) and a few spices. Complete with salt and pepper, and you are back to your regular pasta with tomato sauce!
The Next Alternative: Fresh Tomatoes
Yes, you can make tomato sauce starting with fresh tomatoes. It will be lighter than what you would get, if you had tomato sauce, but it will still bring you that great taste you love. Dice the tomatoes in small pieces, place a little bit of olive oil in the pan, and start cooking them. Once they start melting, add some water and let it cook some more.
In this case, you should definitely go one step farther in your addition of ingredients, to raise the taste level. Look for vegetables in the fridge (red peppers, mushrooms, carrots…) and add them to the tomatoes. Let it cook a little while, so the sauce can really get all the flavours from the ingredients.
Vegetable Alternatives
The best way to cook pasta is to open the fridge door and look at what you have inside. You can create chef meals without trying too hard. That’s the case with spinach. If you find some at home, place them in the boiling water with the pasta, a few minutes before draining them through the colander. All you want is for the spinach to cook just a little. Then, place the whole thing in a pan, with a touch of olive oil and mix the pasta and the spinach together. Add salt and pepper, et voilà!
Olives are a great addition to pasta. You can use them differently, by mixing them with other elements. One of the great ways to do so, is to add red peppers and onions sliced in tiny dices, to them (also sliced and without cooking them), into cold pasta. Add olive oil and a small spoon of white vinegar. Mix well, and you have a pasta salad you will want to prepare again and again.
Mixing a bunch of vegetables is also a great solution by simply sauté them with only a touch of olive oil. Vegetables that are especially good for this recipe are: onions, mushrooms, peppers, and zucchinis. Add a little bit of garlic to the olive oil, before inserting the vegetables. To get it to feel more like a sauce, add a little bit of vegetable or chicken broth once they are cooked. Strain the pasta and mix them in with the other ingredients, inside the wok.
Cheese Sauces
In America, Mac & Cheese has become part of the food culture, for many years now. The company Kraft has made it a specialty of theirs. In the box, you have the macaroni noodles and a pack of cheese. Once the pasta is cooked, you just pour the cheese powder on it, and it is ready to eat. Some also add milk.
But in truth, you can make cheese sauces easily, with other types of cheese, which will be better than using processed food. Look at the cheeses you have in your refrigerator, then go online and look for a cheese sauce recipe, featuring the kind you hold.
No tomato sauce? That’s good news! You will discover new ways to cook pasta and create new delicious dishes that everyone will love.
