Spaghetti in Bechamel Sauce

I love pasta in any form and shape and can eat it any number of times. I have some folks at work who believe that eating pasta is a sign that you are snooty and, hence, look down on rotis and rice. I am sick and tired of explaining to people that I like variety. I am even sicker of explaining to folks that I grew up eating the stuff. Somehow, people are totally unable to believe that my mother made these part of our every day meals. Long before pizza sauces and bases made their appearance in supermarkets, she dished out pizzas from scratch as Monday night dinners. And I don’t count pizza and pasta in my list of junk food. These are full meals and can be as nutritious as you want them to be.

I’ve had some spaghetti lying in the cupboard for months now and somehow never got around to making it. I love spaghetti with tomato sauce and S loves his spaghetti carbonara. In fact, he’d try and order it at every Italian restaurant. I had a lot of milk in the fridge waiting to be used up and dished this out a couple of weeks ago. I loved this dish especially for the colours. (I really wanted to add corn for the yellow, but S didn’t want corn in his spaghetti!)

150g Spaghetti
1 tsp Olive Oil
1/2 cup, Broccoli, steamed
1/4 cup Mushrooms, sliced
1/4 cup, Red Capsicum, sliced
1 tbsp Butter/Olive Oil
1 tbsp Flour
1 cup Milk
1/2 tsp Parsley
1/2 tsp Basil
1 tsp Chilli flakes
1/2 tsp Garlic Paste
Salt and Pepper to Taste
1 slice Low Fat Cheese (optional)

Heat the butter in a saucepan. Add the capsicum and fry for a minute. Add the garlic paste, parsley, basil and chilli flakes and fry for another minute. Add the flour and fry without browning the flour. Add the mushrooms and fry for about 30 seconds. (Do not fry the mushrooms for too long as the water in them gets released.) Add the milk and bring the mixture to a boil while stirring continuously. If adding cheese, add it at this point and stir the sauce well. As the sauce thickens, add the salt and pepper. Add the broccoli and cook for a minute.

Boil 2 litres of water with a little salt and 1 tsp oil. Add the spaghetti to the boiling water and cook for 10 minutes.

Serve some spaghetti on a plate. Pour the sauce over it. Dig in.