This story seemed like a disaster once, but the more I discovered about food, the more I got to understand that many a times, our perceptions about disasters are wrong, they can be miracles too if we do not engage in self-criticism too much.

And listen to our mothers, in the area that they are not knowledgable. 🤓

I love the warmth that a bowl of pasta exudes. The glossy texture of pasta cooked in an even glossier medium – extra virgin olive oil and served drenched or topped with that warm cheese – it just cannot get better! 

And when I say cheese, I mean the naturally aged ones that Italians/Europeans use, not the processed variety that is recommended by tons of food bloggers aiming to gain millions of followers without caring about how their focus on processed cheese can be harmful to their followers.

I said it, sorry wrote it here and I am not sorry! Processed cheese is harmful and Italians hate it.

Back to my comforting bowl of pasta. When I initially started preparing pasta, I struggled with boiling the pasta at the right time. It was either undercooked or overcooked as my sister loved to remind me. And frankly speaking, or writing, I thought I will use my intuition while cooking pasta. The way I cooked Indian food.

Sadly, intuition does not work well with pasta. Or even desserts. But we will come to desserts in a later post. And the detailed story about pasta disasters. 

So one fine Sunday, I wanted to have that Bambino macaroni with vegetables leftover in my refrigerator. In 2019, I was not very well versed with the different brands of pasta. So I used Bambino brand only for cooking low-key macaroni. 

I requested my mother for support on boiling the macaroni because I was not very confident. When I opened my refrigerator, I could find only tomatoes and peas. I was a bit flabbergasted about using peas in macaroni.

But then I thought that I need to make this a bit healthier. It might taste weird. 

So I added peas to the sautéed mixture of onions and tomatoes. And the first reaction my mother gave was “Who the hell adds peas to pasta?” They are totally opposite in texture and not complimentary.

But as usual, I did not listen to my Mom. And years later, I did show her videos of peas risotto and peas sauce pasta by European food bloggers.

So back to my kitchen, the dish got cooked well. Since I was already conscious of my Mom’s comment, I did not like the first bite. At that time, I used fork only to eat pasta. And pea being pea provided some challenges in eating the dish. 

Ultimately I used a spoon and started gobbling on pasta and peas together. The taste was not as bad as I presumed it to be. The delicious bite of peas went so well with the glossy macaroni. I coerced my mom to taste it and even she said “Huhhh, not bad”.

I posted the picture of the dish on our Instagram blog page. Since my sister was doing her MBA from a different city then, even her first reaction was “matar kaun daalta hai pasta me?” (Who puts peas in pasta?)

We Indians assume that our humble matar/peas was only made for aloo matar, matar paneer, matar paratha, matar ghughni etc. but Europeans have an equal right to add peas to their dishes. And they actually do! Maybe we need to educate ourselves more on world cuisine and the evolution of dishes in other cultures.