Desi Keema Pasta
A indian-italian fusion pasta dish of spiced keema in a fresh sauce folded with fuisili pasta.
Ingredients
- 8oz (~240g) pasta use any shape you like
- 2 tablespoon olive oil
- ¾ cup onion chopped
- 1.5 tablespoon ginger garlic paste simply pound 2 cloves of garlic & ½ inch fresh ginger shoot using mortar pestle or use botted ginger garlic paste
- 1 cup tomato sauce
- ½ cup marinara sauce skip if you want and use just tomatoes
- ½ teaspoon ground cumin
- 1.5 teaspoon ground coriander
- ½ teaspoon paprika
- ½ teaspoon Red chilli powder hot, adjust to taste
- 1-2 green chilli hot, adjust to taste
- 4-5 fresh mint leaves (or any herbs you like)
- chopped cilantro
- 150 gms ground lamb I use 85/15 or use ground chicken or goat keema or ground beef
- 1 teaspoon salt to taste adjust to taste
- 1-2 teaspoon lemon juice to taste
Instructions
- Bring a large pot of water (3 to 4 times the quantity of pasta)to boil and salt it literally.
- Once boiling, add the uncooked pasta and stir 1-2 times. Cook fro 6-8 minutes or until the pasts is al-dante. Follow the cooking time on the packaging of pasta.
- Drain and reserve about ½ cup of pasta water.
- In a wide pan, heat up the oil on medium heat.
- Once warm, add the chopped onions. Saute for 4-5 minutes or untill the onions start turning little brown, don't brown them too much.
- Next add the pounded ginger and garlic and saute for 10-15 seconds.
- Add the ground meat now. Break the meat using a spoon and mix it with the onions.
- Sprinkle the spice powders , salt and mix with the keema.
- Brown the meat for good 8-10 minutes to low medium heat . Initially it will release its moisture but eventually, you will see that the oil is starting to seperate.
- Add the tomato sauce and marinara sauce next. Add about ¼ cup water right now.
- Reduce the stove to low medium and let the tomatoes cook down. Slowly you will see that the keema and tomatoes become saucy, continue to cook them till you see that they thicken a bit and tiny oil bubbles start appearing. You could cover for a few minutes. Don't dry out the meat sauce too much.
- Add chopped mint or cilantro and green chilies along with lemon juice now.
- Add in the pasta to the warm sauce and fold gently with the meat. Add more pasta water if you feel its dry. Taste and adjust the salt as well.
- Let everything cook for 3-4 minutes, don't stir too much since the pasta is soft and might break.
- Switch off the stove, add some fresh cracked pepper(optional) pr sprinkle of parmesan cheese. Serve warm.
Notes
- If you want you can add some vegetables like carrots, peas or chopped bell peppers depending on how your family will enjoy it.
- Double up the recipe if you want a larger batch.
- Substitute with any shape like fuisili, spagetti or penne. Different flavors of pasta like spinach pasta also taste good.
- You can use ground chicken or ground beef or even plant-based alternatives for a vegetarian version.
- If you are using chicken keema, use heavy cream at the end for a creamier sauce.
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!