Curry Pasta

Pasta in cream sauce spiced with an Indian-inspired spice mix, this curry pasta is indulgent, delicious and easy enough for a weeknight. More like a British-style curry sauce or curried chicken salad than an authentic and complex Indian curry, this dish relies on readily available store bought curry powder and spices. Keep it simple and serve the pasta on its own or add some chicken or shrimp for protein.

The Spices

The goal for this pasta sauce is to use a small number of relatively easy-to-find Indian curry inspired spices. It’s not about producing an authentic curry, but taking inspiration from milder Westernized curry dishes like a curry sauce or curried “coronation” pasta salad that are popular in Britain to create a pasta that’s flavorful but not complex to make. The spice mix includes: 

• ‍Curry Powder. I like to use Madras curry powder for this dish, but you can use whatever curry powder you have on hand.
• ‍Garam Masala. Garam masala used to be somewhat of a specialist ingredient in the West but these days it can usually be found in most grocery stores. If you can’t get your hands on store-bought garam masala you can make your own, provided your pantry is well-stocked with spices. For the best flavor, you would start with whole spices, toast them and then grind them into a powder. For a quicker option I used this recipe that relies on dried spices. 
• ‍Turmeric. Turmeric has a subtle earthy, peppery, flavor but is used in this recipe primarily for the rich yellow color it gives to the sauce. You could omit it if you don’t have it, though the sauce will be more of a reddish-brown color without.
• ‍Chili Powder. For this recipe I used a generic store-bought “chili powder” but you could also check out the international section of your grocery store or a local Indian grocer for chili powders. These often come in larger bags and a variety of spice levels. You could also ground your own chili powder from dried red chilies. 

The Importance of Pasta Water

The recipe below instructs you to save a cup or two of the pasta water before removing or draining the pasta from the pot. This is always a good idea when cooking pasta because:

• As pasta cooks it releases starch into its cooking water. Adding some of this starchy water back into the dish improves the texture of the sauce. It produces a creamier sauce that clings more easily to the pasta. 
• Pasta water improves the texture of leftovers. As soon as pasta is sauced it begins to suck up moisture from the sauce. If not served immediately the sauce will thicken and become dry. If you save some of the pasta water, you can use it to loosen up stiffened sauce and return it to its original texture by adding a bit of the pasta water to the dish and mixing it through for a few minutes over low heat. 

The Spice Level

Both the red chili flakes and the chili powder in this recipe give the pasta a bit of heat. If you’re a spice lover you’ll barely notice it, but those who prefer their food mild may want to omit the chili flakes or the chili powder, or both. 

You can substitute paprika or Kashmiri chili powder for the chili powder if you’d prefer a milder sauce.  

Optional Additions

I’ve kept this recipe simple - and vegetarian - by serving it with just the pasta and an Indian-spiced cream sauce. It’s perfect for a quick weeknight meal, an indulgent girl dinner for when you’re eating alone or served alongside a simple salad. 

If you’d like to add more to the recipe:

Add a Protein

• ‍Chicken or shrimp would work well with the flavors of the sauce if you want to add some protein to the dish. 
• If adding chicken, you could go with shredded rotisserie chicken or leftover chicken, if you have any, or roast it simply in the oven while you prepare your mise en place. Chop or shred the cooked chicken and add it to the sauce with the pasta and greens in step 3 of the recipe below. 
• If adding shrimp, I’d recommend cooking the shrimp in the pan before making the sauce, then removing it and setting it aside to add back to the dish with the pasta. That way you’ll avoid overcooking the shrimp and the shallots will pick up some of the flavor of the shrimp as they cook, enhancing the flavor of the sauce. 
• You could season the protein you use simply with salt and pepper or with more of the other spices from the recipe - curry powder, garam masala, chili powder and/or turmeric.

For more pasta recipes with protein try this shrimp scampi with breadcrumbs or this “marry me” pasta with pan-fried chicken.

Add more Vegetables

• For this recipe I’ve used spinach that’s simply thrown into the pan along with the pasta and mixed through until it wilts. This is my favorite way to get dark leafy greens into an otherwise carb-heavy dinner, largely because it’s so easy. 
• If you’d like to add more vegetables, one option is to just use more of the spinach or another soft green like Arugula. Soft greens like these lose a ton of volume very quickly as they cook down, so you can get away with adding a lot more than you think. 
• Another option is to add a heaping serving of sautéed sturdy greens. These can be prepped ahead of time, as I like to do with these easy sautéed collard greens. Meal prepping greens in advance works perfectly for sturdier greens like collards or kale that need more time to cook, hold up well in the refrigerator and can be added to almost anything. 
• You could also use frozen vegetables like peas and carrots, as you might find in a classic curried chicken salad. 

What to do with Leftovers

Pasta doesn’t make ideal leftovers. The texture is never as good the next day. I always think it's better to make only as much pasta as will be eaten right away. However, if you do want or have leftovers, allow them to cool then store them in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 3 days. 

I don’t recommend freezing pasta in a cream sauce like this, as cream tends to split after defrosting. However if you wanted to make this curry pasta as a freezer meal, you could always make the sauce in advance, without the pasta, and freeze it by itself. It will still split as it defrosts but you can whisk it back together in a pan over low heat to bring it back together before adding the pasta.

As pasta sits in the fridge it becomes mushy and the sauce thickens, losing its smooth and creamy texture. For the best tasting leftovers, save some of the pasta water in a separate container in the refrigerator. When ready to eat the leftovers, warm the pasta on the stove in a small pan. Add some of the pasta water and stir frequently as the pasta warms to prevent the pasta from sticking to the bottom of the pot. This will loosen the sauce and bring it back to a creamy consistency similar to that of the freshly made dish.