Pasta ‘motukanio’

Motukanio – (Embu/Kikuyu) verb: to add everything together.

This is courtesy of my friend Dee. As we were on our way to town from work, I happened to mention that I had intentions of making pasta for dinner. Dee went on and told me of this recipe. You simply make a sauce with whatever you have on hand and instead of cooking the pasta separately, you add it to the sauce and let it cook.

She was taught by her mother and it happens to be the first thing she learnt how to cook. The beauty of this recipe as the name suggests ‘motukanio’ – you just add in whatever you have on hand.

Ingredients:

1 medium sized onion sliced

3 medium sized tomatoes diced

1 eggplant diced

1 bell pepper diced

pasta of choice

1 cup hot water

1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

1/2 teaspoon black pepper

1 teaspoon paprika

1 tablespoon rubbed basil leaves

salt to taste

In a saucepan heat about 2 tablespoons of oil. Fry the onions.

Add in the tomatoes, eggplant and bell pepper.

Add in the seasoning, garlic,paprika and black pepper.

Cover and let it cook down.

When it got to this part, I was a bit confused on what to put first the pasta or the water. But since Dee had mentioned that the water should be just enough to cook the pasta. I opted to put in the pasta so that I can control the level of water.

Add the hot water.

Cook as per the pasta instructions. I cooked mine for 8 minutes. Sprinkle the basil leaves and stir. Aromatic

Serve immediately.

The beauty of this meal is that it’s complete on it’s own.

Next time you are in a rush to prepare dinner try this.