Pasta and Rice

When we were growing up, rice was very much part of our staple diet, given its predominance in the Indo-lraqi culinary heritage. However, our early exposure to pasta came from the bog-standard two-sauce Italian restaurant, so it wasn’t until we started cooking – and exploring Italian cuisine that we began to appreciate the subtleties and regional variations that real pasta dishes can offer. This chapter gives some of our favourite pasta and rice dishes, and tips for cooking them.

When cooking basmati rice, soak it for a few hours before cooking because this will result in a lighter, fluffier rice. When boiling pasta, season the water well with salt, and keep a little of the starchy cooking water to add to the sauce if it becomes too thick. Another good tip is to cut the vegetables a similar size to the pasta that you are cooking. This will allow the pasta and vegetables to cook evenly together, and gives the dish a visually pleasing structure. It also makes it easier to eat.