Creamy and Healthy Italian Pasta for the weekend

Pasta is a highly rumored dish since most people associate it with junk food, but the fact is that the components present in food make it either healthy or unhealthy. A perfect foundation of a healthy, nutritious, and satisfying meal is the ingredients, such as fiber-rich vegetables and legumes, heart-healthy fish, antioxidant-rich tomato sauce, protein-rich cheeses, poultry, and lean meats, we use in the making process. These ingredients can make even any food called unhealthy a healthy food. Similarly, Italian pasta is prepared with some fresh and healthy ingredients, which makes it a perfect & healthy dish. There are some different types of pasta found all over the world, but Italian variations such as Linguine al Nero, spaghetti carbonara, and others demonstrate can be regarded as high-protein, high-calorie meals. Pasta is not only about the butter and salt, it’s also quite prepared with freshly grated Alfredo (a rich pasta sauce made with butter, Parmesan cheese), and extra-virgin olive oil(benefit your heart, bone, and digestive health and help stabilize your blood sugar levels) and spices such as black pepper. The good thing about the dish is that its intake is not associated with obesity.

This weekend enjoy these authentic Italian pastas with your loved ones:

1. Cannelloni Ricotta: Cannelloni is cylindrical Italian pasta, usually baked with a filling and sauce. It is loaded with stuffing, baked with a sauce, and served with cheese on the top. Always use fresh & frozen spinach for convenience, pepper, garlic, egg, and nutmeg. One can skip egg and nutmeg as per their choice. One can enhance the dish by adding some parmesan and cheese in it.

2. Lasagna: Lasagna is a pasta dish made up of layers of veggies, cheese, tomato and white sauce, and noodles. It takes less than 30 minutes to prepare and can be done in one pot. It can be served with a side salad, Texas toast, arugula salad with cherry tomatoes, or simple cheesy garlic breadsticks.

3. Linguine al Nero: This dish is also known as squid ink spaghetti. It is as healthy as any other pasta and has slightly more iron and antioxidants. This wonderful dish not only contains ink, but also squid, tomato, and olive oil. Squid ink is used in the actual pasta dough in the making and it can also be used in the sauce in some other recipes. It gives the dish a dark hue and a delicate fishy flavor.

4. Garganelli: It is also known as maccheroni al Pettine in different areas of the world. The egg pasta dough for garganelli sometimes contains nutmeg and Parmesan as well. It is cut into little squares, about

3-5cm in diameter, once it has been rolled out. These squares are rolled around a 'bastoncino' stick. The pasta is then rolled over a garganelli board or comb, also known as a Pettine (which means comb in Italian). It's a light pasta dish one can have with a little hungry stomach.

5. Spaghetti Carbonara: With only 5 ingredients (spaghetti, bacon, garlic, Parmesan, and eggs), this is one of the easiest pasta dishes ever that one can prepare in just 15 minutes or less. This new version of the recipe only has 307 calories and 7 grams of fat which is OK for people with LMD (Low Microbial Diet), as long as all vegetables and cheese are well cooked.

By Chef Govind Bhushal, executive chef & Managing director, Dr. Zombie

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