Vegetarian Kofta Pasta Recipe ( Pasta Recipe Indian Style)

This is an Indian – Italian fusion recipe. This vegetarian kofta curry made with mashed potato and crumbed paneer/cottage cheese is usually served with rice, chappati and other Indian pancakes and flat breads. In this recipe, Pasta is added to the Kofta curry making it a yummy fusion dish…If you are looking for a super-tasty unique Pasta recipe, this is the one!:)

 

Kofta pasta recipe in detail
Serves : 2-3 ( for 4-5 servings ‘double the recipe’)

Ingredients :
For Kofta (Potato Paneer balls):
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4 medium boiled Potatoes (mashing consistency)
100gms Paneer crumbs (substitute with cottage cheese or ricotta cheese)
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp Corn flour
Oil for deep frying

For Kofta stuffing (optional):
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1/4 cup boiled chickpeas /chana (I used the leftover from chickpea/chana curry)
Roughly 1 cup – Mexican cheese blend (or any cheese shreds)

For Pasta:
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2 cups Farfalle pasta ( use pasta of your choice, preferably big ones like Farfalle/FarfalleTonde/ Fiocchi Rigati/ Pennete/ Rigatoni/ Penne Rigate/)
6 cups water for boiling
3/4 tsp salt

For the sauce:
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2 tsp oil
1″ ginger piece ( or 1 tsp ginger paste)
1 medium onion
2 medium tomato paste
1 cup water
1/2 tsp salt
1 tbsp chopped mint leaves

->You will be doing ‘Kofta Pasta’ in 4 Parts: (all steps included in video)
Part 1) Make kofta’s and deep fry them
Part 2) Boil pasta till soft
Part 3) Make sauce & add fried kofta’s
Part 4) Add cooked pasta to sauce, mix and serve

Part 1) Make Kofta’s and deep fry them
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Step 1) Mash 4 medium boiled potatoes using a fork. (To get the mashable consistency, boil the potatoes till soft and mash when warm/hot)

Step 2) Crumb 100gms of paneer using finger tips. (Paneer can be substituted with Cottage cheese or Ricota cheese)

Step 3) Add the paneer crumbs to potato mash and incorporate well with the fork.

Step 4) Add 1/2 tsp salt, 2 tsp corn flour and mix using the same fork. now the mash is ready to make the kofta’s or potato balls

Step 5)Take a small amount of mash and shape them into medium sized balls or kofta’s and place them on a plate dusted with 2 tsp corn flour (the corn flour prevents the kofta’s from sticking to the plate).(Instead of cornflour, you can also use 2 tspn oil to grease the plate).

Tip while shaping kofta :- If the potato mash sticks to your fingers/palm while shaping kofta’s or balls, dip your hand in a bowl of cold water, pat dry on a tissue and shape
kofta’s (I added some ice cubes as the tap warm was warm)

Step 6) Continue making Kofta’s like these. You can stuff the kofta’s with cheese, raisins, nuts or any stuffing of your choice. I used cooked chickpeas and mexican style cheese shreds for stuffing. (Chickpeas are also know as Garbanzo beans/ Chana.)

Step 7) To stuff: After shaping to a kofta/ball, make a dent at the centre using the tip of the thumb,place a chickpea in and shape it to a ball/kofta and place on the plate.

Step 8) Stuff the mexican style cheese shreds or any cheese of your choice as in step7.(Make a dent, place the cheese shreds in, seal the top and shape into a ball/kofta and place on the plate)

Step 9) Once you finish making the kofta’s/balls, shake the plate to coat the kofta’s with corn flour as in video(at 2:39) (This is to prevent the kofta’s from sticking to the plate)

Step10) Deep fry the kofta’s/balls in batches (3 – 4 at a time).

Step11) Once the kofta’s are golden brown, take out from the oil and place them on paper towel.

Tip while frying kofta’s:- Fry them in batches. Do not over crowd them, they will break and become soggy.

Part 2) Boil Pasta till soft
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Step 12) Heat 6 cups of water. Once the water starts boiling, add 3/4 tsp salt and 2 cups pasta. Boil on high heat for 2 minutesand then cook on medium heat till the pasta becomes soft (It took 15 minutes for me)

-> while the Pasta is cooking, continue with Part 3

Part 3) Make sauce & add fried kofta’s or potato balls
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Step 13) In a blender, add 1 tsp ginger, 1 medium roughly chopped onion and grind to a thick paste

Step 14) Heat a shallow pan/wok and pour 1 tbsp oil. Reduce the heat to medium and add the ground ginger-onion paste and saute till the paste becomes light brown in colour

Step 15) Add 2 medium tomato paste/puree and cook till the paste thickens(this takes about 5-7 minutes)

Step 16) Pour 1 cup water, add 1/2 tsp salt and boil on high

Step 17) Place the fried kofta’s/potato balls in the sauce

Step 18) Cover and cook on low heat for 3 minutes

Step 19) Open the lid, turn the kofta’s. cover and cook for 2 minutes on same heat.

Step 20) Add the chopped mint leaves.(Do not stir/mix)

Step 21) Cover and cook for a minute

Part 4) Add cooked pasta, mix and serve
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-> you can mix the pasta in 2 different ways:
i) Add the cooked pasta directly to the sauce and mix (some kofta’s might break while   mixing)
or
ii)Remove the kofta’s from the sauce. Mix the cooked pasta in the sauce.While serving,
arrange the kofta’s on top/side and serve.

-> I followed first step (i): mixed everything together and some kofta’s did break:)

Step 22) Drain the cooked pasta using a strainer/colander just before adding to the sauce

Step 23) Add the cooked pasta to the kofta sauce and mix gently on low heat

Tip while mixing Pasta & kofta :- If possible, use a soft silicon spatula to mix the kofta and pasta together to prevent the kofta’s from getting mashed.

Step 24) After mixing, let sit for 5 minutes before serving

-> Serve Hot Hot and Enjoy!!!:)

->Warning!!! These kofta’s can be so tempting while frying as it replicates the aroma of french fries and possibly will force the housemates to barge into your kitchen and chomp it…so be ready to save some for our actual recipe:) These fried crispy creamy kofta’s can also be enjoyed with tea or coffee…Try this kofta pasta recipe and tell
me your feedback by words or by stars:)

FAQs: (Frequently Asked Questions) for Kofta Pasta
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*Reason for mashing potatoes when warm/hot?
Easily mashes to a smooth creamy paste which helps in making/shaping smooth kofta’s.

*What are the substitutes for paneer?
You can use Cottage cheese or Ricotta cheese

*How do I make ‘Paneer crumbs/cottage cheese crumbs’?
It’s an easy recipe…
click-> https://www.c4cooking.com/how-to-make-indian-soft-paneer/

*The potato mixture is too soft to shape into kofta/balls! how to fix this?
To the potato mixture, add 1 tbsp allpurpose flour/plain flour/maida/cornflour and mix   with fork and make balls/kofta’s

*Reason for dusting the plate with corn flour?
Is to prevent the kofta’s from sticking to the plate. You can also grease the plate with little oil instead of corn flour

*The kofta mixture keeps sticking to the fingers/palm while shaping? How to fix?
If the kofta’s stick to palm while shaping, dip ur hands in tub of really cold water…slightly dry in kitchen towel and shape the kofta’s. If it continues sticking, here is a remedy…pour a tblspn of oil to the potato mixture and mix well with fork/spoon. grease your hands with some oil and start making kofta’s(hope it doesn’t stick now:)

*Can I shallow fry the kofta’s?
No, It might break apart and will end up soggy/shapeless-soft kofta’s

*It cracks while frying?
Reason 1) oil is not hot enough or fried under reduced/low heat. heat the oil on high for 4 more minutes, reduce to medium heat and test with a small piece of kofta mixture.

Reason 2) shallow fried/ not enough oil used for frying (kofta’s should ‘sink in the oil’ like in step10(see video)

Reason 3) fry in batches, 3-4 at a time (adding 5 or more kofta’s at a time can lower the
temperature of oil resulting in kofta’s sucking-in more oil and becomes soggy)

*Can we bake these kofta’s?
No, (I tried baking them once, but it collapses/flattens as it bakes and the taste is 0… Usually when we bake, the kitchen smells so good…but this didn’t leave a trace of smell making me wonder if my my oven was working! I tested by opening the oven door and feeling the heat…haha…glad that it was working:)…so that is what I have to say about ‘BAKING’ them.

But the funny fact while frying is ‘the entire house smells like FRENCH FRIES’…isn’t that odd!…so just fry it:)

*What to do to prevent the kofta’s from breaking while mixing with pasta?
Safest option is to takeout the kofta’s from the sauce, then add the cooked pasta to the sauce and mix. While serving, spoon some pasta to the plate, arrange the kofta’s on top/side and serve.

If the FAQs doesn’t answer your questions, comment below and I will get back to you as soon as possible:)

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For more unique Pasta Recipes and Pasta recipes Indian style,
have a look at-> https://www.c4cooking.com/pasta-recipes/