Food Without Borders

Passport & Plate - The Well-Travelled Spaghetti

Malaysia | Friday, March 14, 2014 | 5 photos

Ingredients
250g spaghetti, cooked al dente
1 medium potato, sliced into inch-long sticks
1/2 medium carrot, sliced into inch-long sticks
8-10 French beans, sliced into inch-long sticks
6-8 button mushrooms, sliced
1 tablespoon olive oil
5 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1/4 teaspoon turmeric powder
3-4 basil leaves, roughly torn
Salt to taste

For the sauce:
3 medium Roma tomatoes
1 medium red capsicum, de-seeded
1 medium onion, roughly chopped and sauteed till soft
3 teaspoons red chilli powder (or red chilli flakes)

Topping
Mozzarella cheese, grated

 

How to prepare this recipe
1. Blend Roma tomatoes, capsicum, sauteed onions and red chilli powder together in a food processor until it is a smooth sauce. Set aside.

2. Heat olive oil in a deep saucepan or wok. Saute garlic until lightly browned before adding the turmeric powder. Saute for a few more minutes.

3. Add potatoes, carrots and beans, sauteing till they are soft. Add in the mushrooms when vegetables are about halfway cooked.

4. When the vegetables are cooked, pour in the tomato sauce. Add in the basil leaves and stir until the vegetables and sauce are well-mixed. Add salt to taste.

5. Let the sauce simmer and thicken over low heat for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.

6. Pour in the cooked spaghetti and stir-fry over medium heat until the pasta is well-coated in the sauce.

7. Serve immediately, topped with mozzarella cheese.

 

The story behind this recipe
My love affair with Italian food has its beginnings in the most unlikely of places: my maternal grandmother - my Paati - who left India for Malaysia when she got married, and until fairly recently, hadn't travelled anywhere else. Yet, for as long as I can remember, she has been making this spaghetti dish for us, and for as long as I can remember, I've adored it - there are even old recordings of me as a toddler, demanding for "pesgetti".
No one in the family is able to recall exactly how Paati even heard of spaghetti, or how she came up with this recipe. But being a resourceful woman, she obviously took what she knew about pasta dishes and adapted it into a dish that not only used Malaysian ingredients, but suited the South Asian taste palate (food without chilli is unthinkable in an Indian household!).
Paati knew how much I loved her spaghetti, so whenever I came to visit, she would make a point of cooking up a batch of it. Even as an adult, when I called on a whim to say I was visiting, she would ask, "I haven't planned anything for dinner yet, shall I make spaghetti?"
Over the years, I have widened my appreciation of Italian food, and it's without doubt my favourite cuisine. However, no matter which fancy restaurant I eat at or who whips up my gourmet pasta dish, there is just something about my Paati's humble spaghetti recipe that satisfies me like nothing else can. And though many of us family members have tried to recreate her dish, none of us have managed to replicate it exactly - this has been the source of many an argument between my mother and I, as I have actually refused to eat her version of the recipe because it "doesn't taste like Paati's!"
My Paati passed away suddenly a year ago, and not a day goes by that I don't miss her. Yet, whenever I make my version of her recipe and sit down to tuck into it, I can't help remembering with a smile, the sight of her standing in her old kitchen, stirring a huge wokful of spaghetti as we chat away together.