Creamy Indian curry pasta

Curry pasta is a flavorful creamy Indian-style pasta recipe that can be prepared within 30 minutes. It's a fusion of Indian and Italian cuisines in which the usual tomato sauce of pasta is replaced with a delicious Indian makhani sauce.

What's needed to make curry pasta?

For this creamy curry pasta recipe, you will need the following ingredients:

Ingredient notes and substitute suggestions

• Pasta: I have used fusilli. You can use whichever pasta you have or like.
• Tomatoes: Use juicy red tomatoes to make makhani sauce.
• Onion: Red onion is the best for Indian recipes and you won't get the same flavor of makhani sauce with brown or white onion. However, if you don't have red onion, feel free to use whichever variety is available.
• Ginger and garlic. Fresh ginger and garlic will give you more flavor. But, store-bought ginger-garlic paste can be used too.
• Cream: Preferably heavy cream as it will make a more rich and creamy sauce.
• Cilantro: Cilantro tastes the best in Indian recipes. If you don't like cilantro, skip it. Generally, I don't recommend replacing cilantro with parsley in Indian recipes but you can also use parsley in this Indian pasta recipe.
• Tomato paste: It adds a richer tomato flavor to the sauce.
• Spices: The powdered spices I have used in this recipe are Kashmiri red chili powder, curry powder, and ground black pepper. However, please note that Indians usually don't add curry powder to their food and prefer adding spices like ground cumin, coriander, or garam masala. You can also use these spices instead of curry powder if you want. A pinch of turmeric powder can also be added but that will change the color of the sauce. 
• Olive oil: Use good quality olive oil for better flavor. You can add butter too for a richer, creamier, buttery sauce.

Other ingredient details and nutritional information are shared in the recipe card.

How to make (step-by-step process)?

Making makhani sauce pasta is very easy, just follow the simple step-by-step instructions shared below:

Step 1: Cook pasta al dente following package instructions. Before straining, reserve some pasta water.

Step 2: Heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a large skillet or pan while the pasta cooks. Add chopped onion, garlic, and ginger. 

Step 3: Cook until the onion starts turning brown.

Step 4: Add chopped tomatoes and salt.

Step 5: Mix and cover the pan.

Step 6:  Cook covered until the tomatoes turn soft.

Step 7: Transfer the cooked onion and tomatoes to a food processor or grinding jar. 

Step 8: Pulse to make a smooth sauce.

Step 9: Heat the remaining ½ a tablespoon of oil in the same pan. Add the onion-tomato sauce, tomato paste, curry powder, Kashmiri red chili powder, black pepper, and salt. Cook for 2-3 minutes. Add some reserved pasta water to adjust the consistency, if the sauce is too thick.

Step 10: Add cooking cream and mix. Cook on low heat for 1-2 minutes while stirring continuously.

Step 11: Add cooked pasta and gently mix. Turn off the heat.

Step 12: Garnish with chopped fresh cilantro or parsley.

Your delicious creamy Indian curry pasta is ready to be served!

Serving Indian curry pasta

Serve this Indian pasta hot or warm.

You can squeeze some fresh lemon juice before serving.

Curry pasta can be served with a crunchy salad, toasted bread, roasted potatoes, or any other roasted vegetable.

Storing, freezing, and reheating

Transfer the leftover pasta to an airtight container and refrigerate. Consume it within 2 days. It tastes even better the next day as pasta absorbs all the flavors.

You can also freeze curry pasta in portion-size zip-lock bags or airtight, freezer-safe containers for up to 3 months.

To reheat, if the curry pasta is frozen, thaw it in the refrigerator for 6-7 hours or overnight. 

After that reheat on the stovetop in a pan with a splash of water. Otherwise, microwave with a splash of water.

Taste and reseason if required.

Make ahead

To do some preparation, make the curry sauce in advance. Transfer to an airtight container, it will be fine in the fridge for 2-3 days and in the freezer for 3 months.

Pasta can also be cooked in advance. To do that, toss the cooked pasta in olive oil and transfer it to an airtight container. Refrigerate. It will be fine for 4-5 days.

You can also freeze cooked pasta. To do that slightly undercook the pasta as the frozen pasta becomes softer after getting thawed. Toss cooked pasta with olive oil then spread on a baking tray in a single layer. Freeze for 5-6 hours in the baking tray, covered with an aluminum foil. After that transfer the frozen pasta to batch-size zip-lock bags or airtight containers.

Recipe tips, tricks, and variation suggestions

• Use red onion to make Indian curry sauce. White or brown onion doesn't give the same flavor.
• Use a juicy red variety of tomatoes otherwise, you won't get the required consistency and color of the curry pasta sauce.
• You can add vegetables like green peas, bell peppers, or green beans to this curry pasta. Baby spinach can also be added to it.
• Instead of curry powder, you can also mix Indian spices like cumin powder, coriander powder, garam masala, etc, and add that to the sauce. However, curry powder will give a better flavor to this dish.
• Kashmiri red chili powder is not very spicy but adds color to the dish. To add more heat you can use some red pepper flakes or cayenne pepper.
• Stir the sauce continuously for at least 1-2 minutes after adding cream otherwise, it might curdle because of the tomatoes. Also, keep the heat low or turn off the heat while adding the cream.

Vegan version

To make the vegan version of curry pasta, you can use a vegan cream in the recipe. Full fat coconut milk can be used too.

Or, add 7-8 cashew nuts along with onion, ginger, and garlic while making the makhani sauce.

More quick and easy vegetarian pasta recipes

Looking for more quick and easy recipes for vegetarian pasta dishes? Don't miss to check out the following links:

• Cream cheese pasta
• Zucchini mushroom pasta
• Moroccan pasta
• Pasta in zucchini sauce
• Creamy pasta with ricotta and mushrooms
• Pumpkin ricotta pasta
• 15 minutes creamy vegan tomato pasta
• Pasta napolitana
• Aubergine pasta
• Penne rosa
• Tomato ricotta pasta

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