Farfalle pasta with 4 cheeses (For 2 persons - Light and healthy Cat`s version)
220g of Farfalle (Refer photo step 8)
Salt and pepper to season
A small bouquet of parsley
2 large tomatoes
2 tablespoons of tomato ketchup
4 (~20g each) of your preferred cheeses (cheddar, emmental, parmesan, mozzarella..)
1 tablespoon of sugar
4 cloves of garlic
2 medium size onions
2 tablespoons of Olive oil
2L of water (to cook your Farfalle)
20g of coarse salt/ gros sel (big flake salt to season Farfalle`s cooking water)
Note: For all pasta products including Farfalle, I normally use the "Barilla" brand.
Tip: Always ensure that all your pasta products when cooked are "Al dente" / Al-den-té which means "firm to the bite" or "cuit a point". This is why you should strictly respect the cooking time. All mobile phones are equiped with a timer nowadays ..
Procedure
Step 1: In your pan on medium-high heat, add your onions (chopped), 1 tablespoon of sugar, 2 tablespoons of Olive oil, 2 pinches of salt and 2 pinches or pepper and stir from time to time until your onions have softened (translucent).
Step 2: Once your onions have softened, add in your tomatoes (sliced) until they soften too and release their juice.
Step 3: Once your tomatoes slices have softened and released their juice, stop the heat, then add in about 2 tablespoons of tomato ketchup (for colour intensification ) and 2 cloves of garlic coarsely chopped. Now get your electric hand mixer !
Tip: DO NOT season wih salt and/or pepper at this stage ! (You will understand why at step 7 )
Step 4: Mix mix mix until you obtain a smooth and sexy tomato paste !
Step 5: Get 4 of your favourite cheeses ! Add them (~20g each) to your tomato paste. You may have to grate and/or cut them depending on the type of cheese you choose ..
Step 6: On low heat, allow your cheeses to melt while stirring continuously
Step 7: Once your cheeses have fully melted, stop the heat. You can now season your "cheesy tomato paste" with salt and pepper up to taste . Eventually transfer this paste to another recipient and set aside .
Note: You should season your paste with salt and pepper only at this stage, that is after adding and melting the cheeses because some/most cheeses already contain some salt. If you season before that (such as at step 3) and eventually add one or more cheeses which contain salt, then your cheesy tomato paste might be too salty
Step 8: Weight your Farfalle !
Step 9: Put 2L of water in a pan, add 20g of coarse salt (gros sel) and 2 cloves of grated garlic and wait for the water to boil*. Only when the water is boiling, transfer your 220g Farfalle in your pan. Start your timer as from this moment set to 10 minutes.
*Important Tip: Ratio of Salt: Pasta:Water is 10:100:1000, that is 10 grams of salt for cooking 100 grams of pasta in 1000 milliliters of water (where 1000 ml = 1 liter). Note that here the salt to be used is NOT table salt (fine salt) but coarse salt (gros sel)!
Step 10: When your timer rings (cooking time over), transfer your Farfalle to your colander to remove the excess water.
Step 11: From your colander, transfer again your pasta (Farfalle) to your "cheesy tomato paste" set aside in step 7 and mix to distribute the paste/sauce uniformly .
Step 12: Serve your "Farfalle with 4 cheeses" ! Top up with some fresh thinly sliced parsley and pepper for the "tichef" look ..
Voila !
Bon Appetit !
You might also be interested with "Chicken Spaghetti Bolognese" and "Penne Rigate a la Carbonara"
THANK YOU FOR WATCHING !...
