Recipe: Minced beef spaghetti (Persian-inspired)

Today I share with you my spaghetti recipe that I created myself inspired by Persian cooking techniques and this delicious meal I had, cooked by a dear friend from Persia.

It doesn't take much time to cook and it's home-made, so you get to make it according to your own taste :)

Ingredients for the sauce
- minced beef
- 2 medium sized tomatoes (chopped)
- 1 medium onion (chopped)
- 1/2 medium sized capsicum (chopped)
- Chili (chopped)
- 1 clove of garlic (crushed)
- 1 or 2 potatoes (thinly sliced)
- Salt and pepper to taste
- 1 tbsp soy sauce
- 1 tbsp Oyster sauce
- 2 tbsp Tomato Paste
- 3/4 cup of water
- 1 tbsp oil

Method:
- Heat the oil in a pan, and fry the onions till slightly soft. Then add the potatoes.
- When onion turns golden brown in colour, add the capsicum, garlic and chili. Keep stirring the mixture.
- After about 2 minutes, add the minced beef, salt and pepper and continue stirring.
- When the minced beef has changed colour, add the chopped tomatoes.
- Let the flavours combine for about 3 minutes, then add the soy sauce, oyster sauce and tomato paste followed by about 3/4 cup of water.
- let it simmer on low heat for about 5-7 minutes. Occasionally stir the mixture so it doesnt settle at the bottom.
- Your sauce is ready for step 2.

PS. do not worry about the potatoes being raw. This will be fixed in step 2.

Step 2.
Ingredients:
- Spaghetti
- Water
- 1 tsp Salt
- 1 tbsp oil

Method:
- Fill 3/4 of your pan with water and bring to boil on high heat
- add salt and oil
- add the spaghetti
- Now let it simmer on high heat for about 7 mins till the spaghetti is half cooked and soft from the outside.
- Turn off the heat and drain the noodles.

Now comes the fun part.
- In an empty pan, add a bit of oil and spread it around the base of the pan.
- Now add some spaghetti at the bottom, followed by some of the prepared sauce on top.
- Now repeat the steps layering the spaghetti and the sauce and ending with a layer of spaghetti on the top.
- Now set the stove on high heat for about a minute, then set it on low heat, adding 1/4 cup of water and covering the pan. cook the pasta on indirect heat this time (you can place the pan on top of a frying pan if you don't have the proper tool for indirect cooking).
- After about 20minutes, check if the pasta is cooked. If not, leave it for a further 5-10minutes.

Your pasta is now ready and should look like this.

 Now you can mix all the contents of the pan together making sure the layered sauce is mixed with the pasta nicely.
The end result should be something like this:

I know it seems like a tedious process, but what I usually do is multitask by cutting veggies while meat defrosts, cook the sauce while the pasta boils, etc. This saves a lot of time.

Hope you enjoyed this recipe.
Have a good Sunday! :)