Makhani Pasta

A tomato-heavy, spiced yet delicate North Indian sauce re-purposed as pasta sauce

Coming back from India, I am slammed by a mighty jet lag. I land in India and there’s no trace of it, but I return and it feels as if the air has been sucked out of me. My brain works slower than it normally does, I spend hours zombied out on the sofa, I am up at weird times, feel drugged-out-sleepy and unrested all the time.

And this is the time I crave non-Indian dishes like salads, pastas, pizza with Indian flavors. Ya, my jet lag is freakish, it has its own favorite fusion cuisine. In anticipation of this jet lag, I had been thinking of this pasta dish back home too.

Homemade Pizza with lots of fresh green and crushed red pepper

“Maakhan” means butter in Hindi (the national language of India) and “Makhani” is a buttery, satiny, creamy, smooth North Indian sauce of tomato, onions and spices. It is the base sauce for famous dishes like butter chicken aka murg makhani and paneer makhani, dishes that Indian cuisine is known by throughout the world. Actually, for many, butter chicken is Indian food. However, food writers find this unilateral representation lopsided because it overlooks the immense variety and regional diversity of Indian cuisine. Fair enough! But it’s always my hope that some adventurous eater will think if this butter chicken is so good, what other hidden treasures await me if I explore further.

Makhani sauce ingredients

Makhani sauce has an interesting ingredient profile – it is heavy on tomatoes, onions are one third of the tomatoes - offering savoriness and body -, cashews bestow a rich creaminess, whole spices like cinnamon, green cardamom, bay leaf and cloves infuse the butter (tadka strikes again), which in turn infuses the tomatoes and onions. With this ingredient profile, how could I not try it for pasta? We are big fans of pasta, and our all-time favorite pasta sauce is Marcella Hazan’s Tomato Sauce with Onion & Butter. How mind-blowingly simple is that sauce? Buttery, tomatoey and not annoyingly tangy, the way most store-bought pasta sauces are. I cook this pasta sauce from canned whole peeled tomatoes, and it makes the most awesome lasagna.

Can you see the similarity in ingredients of the makhani sauce and Marcella Hazan’s sauce?

RECIPE – MAKHANI PASTA

Makhani Pasta

Ingredients

• 6 tablespoons butter salted or unsalted divided

• 1 bay leaf

• 5 cloves

• 2 green cardamoms peeled (store the skin in your container of loose tea leaves or tea bags)

• 1” long cinnamon piece

• 1 big clove garlic peeled

• 1 inch ginger piece peeled and roughly chopped

• 1 dry red chile pepper

• 6 roma tomatoes diced into 1 or 1.5” pieces (about 4 cups)

• 1 medium red onion peeled and cut into semi-circular pieces

• 15 pieces whole cashews or 30 pieces half cashews

• 1 teaspoon coriander powder

• 1.5 teaspoons salt

• 2 cups pasta gemelli or fusilli or rotini

• 2 tablespoons olive oil

• 2 teaspoons kasuri methi divided (Crush the kasuri methi in between fingers to create a powdery dust)

• ½ red bell pepper diced into 1-1.5” pieces

• 7-8 button mushrooms each cut into 4 pieces

• ½ teaspoon garam masala

• Grated parmesan cheese for topping

Serves 3-4

Method

• Heat 4 tablespoons butter in a sauté pan over medium heat. A 10” pan would be ideal.

• Add 1 bay leaf, 5 cloves, seeds of 2 green cardamoms and 1 inch piece of cinnamon. Please note that midway through this recipe, we need to fish out these whole spices and discard them for they have sacrificed their being to the sauce and are not fit for consumption anymore. If you are good at fishing out tiny bits of spices from a pan-full of saucy vegetables, be my guest. I am not, so I tied the whole spices in a cheesecloth pouch for easy recovery.

• Stir fry the spices for 3-4 minutes and follow up with onions. They should not be browned, just translucent. This will take about 5-6 minutes.

• Put 1 clove garlic, chopped ginger pieces, 15 cashew pieces and dry red chile pepper into the onion mixture. Sauté so they lose their raw taste. Add in 1 teaspoon coriander powder and stir to avoid the spice from burning.

• Add diced tomatoes and pour in 1 ¼ cups water. Stir in 1 teaspoon salt and cover.

• Cook for 15 minutes. The tomatoes will break down, the onions will acquire the red hue and thicken the water.

WIP Makhani sauce

• Turn the heat off and let this saucy mixture cool down. Fish out the whole spices or the pouch. Now blend the sauce fine and smooth.

• The disparate elements of the sauce come together into a thick, cohesive whole. You will get about 4 cups of makhani sauce.

• Cook the pasta according to the package instructions. Drain and set it aside.

• Now take the same sauté pan you used to make the makhani sauce. Pour in 2 tablespoons olive oil and the remaining 2 tablespoons butter. Add a teaspoon of kasuri methi.

• Throw in diced red bell pepper and mushroom pieces and ½ teaspoon salt. Cook till mushrooms sweat out and bell pepper pieces get three-fourth cooked. This should take about 7-8 minutes.

Mushrooms and red bell peppers cooking in a tadka of kasuri methi

• Pour 2 cups of makhani sauce, ½ teaspoon garam masala and stir well. Add the cooked, drained pasta and remaining teaspoon kasuri methi and turn the heat off.

• Serve hot topped with grated parmesan cheese.

  

• You have 2 more cups of makhani sauce. Refrigerate if you are going to use within a week and freeze it if not.

• Stir-fry cubes of paneer (8 oz) or tofu in a little bit of vegetable oil till they acquire brown edges. Add the makhani sauce. If the sauce was frozen or refrigerated, you can wake it up by re-seasoning with a pinch of salt and garam masala. Sprinkle a teaspoon of crushed kasuri methi and serve with rice or warm, store-bought naan. Two meals in one sauce, perfect for holiday times.

This is the last ChutneyLovers post of 2025. I hope everyone is taking a deep breath, reflecting and planning for the New Year! May your 2026 be peaceful, joyful and may your palate be rewarded with adventure.