Pasta. Italian? Thai!

It was a Saturday morning. I did not go to work. I needed to spend some time at home and focus on my housekeeping and cooking.

You can't have it all. You go to office, your house goes to hell. You stay at home, your backlogs haunt you on Monday morning. Bah!

As usual, I prepared my partner's breakfast and I contemplated lunch. Nope, I was not going to serve him what was in the freezer. That is weekday food. Let's make Saturday food a bit different. Or I could leave him to his own devices.

Since I had already defrosted some minced meat (for another dish) and I bought a whole lot of Thai Basil (for planting), why not make a Thai Basil Pasta? It's an easy dish that tastes very good.

Hope these survive.

So. I got to work. I soaked and washed the basil. Then I removed the leaves, throwing out those that were bad. After a few rinses, I drained them in a colander. The stems? I soaked them in a jar of water.

Another pot for added insurance.

As for the minced meat, I simply seasoned with fish sauce, soya sauce and a good dash of pepper.

To cook, I boiled up some spaghetti and while all that was going on, I sauteed some minced onions and sliced garlic in the wok till fragrant and threw in the minced meat. Stir, stir, stir until the meat was no longer pink.

I added a little water and left it to simmer covered. When the spaghetti was done, I drained and rinsed it under running water. I also reserved some of the pasta water and added that to the meat which by then was almost dry.

In with the pasta and some seasoning and toss. Last bit was to throw in a whole lot of basil. Continue to stir until the basil is wilted. The smell was wonderful!

Remember, what makes or breaks this pasta are two things - (1) Fish sauce and (2) Thai Basil, loads. You must have these two ingredients for amazing aromas and flavors.

So here's my recipe with no measurements. Hey, who measures stuff in the kitchen at 5:00am, huh?

Thai Basil Pasta

Recipe source : Phong Hong

Ingredients :

- Minced meat

- Big Onion, minced

- Garlic, sliced

- Thai Basil leaves, lots

- Fish sauce

- Soya Sauce

- Dark soya sauce

- Pepper

- Spaghetti

Method :

1. Season the minced meat with fish sauce, soya sauce and pepper. Set aside.

2. At this point, you can start boiling the spaghetti.

3. Heat oil in wok and saute onions until translucent.

4. Add garlic and continue to saute until onions and garlic a slightly browned.

5. Add minced meat and stir fry until meat is no longer pink.

6. Add some water (not too much) and simmer the meat covered.

7. Check on your pasta. Once done, reserve some of the pasta water and drain spaghetti. Rinse under running water to present it from sticking together.

8. Check on the meat, it should be almost dry by now.

9. Add the pasta water and spaghetti. Toss to mix with the minced meat.

10. Add soya sauce, fish sauce and some dark soya sauce.

11. Lastly, toss in the Thai basil and continue to stir until leaves are wilted.

12. Serve. Add some pepper, if you like. It will enhance the flavors even more.