Browned pasta sounds like burned pasta to me. I don't know why you'd mix rice and pasta. I agree about basmati. I use it for everything (except risottos) that calls for rice. By the way, there is a lot of tosh written about how to cook rice. Here's a method guaranteed to work every time with basmati:

Measure out the amount you need. Put it into a capacious pan and rinse it in cold water at least three times (crucial). Don't bother sieving it, as the rice stays on the bottom and you can just decant out the water. Boil a kettle of water and turn on the ring full. Salt the rice to taste, then add *an excess* of boiling water (you can check the saltiness later). As soon as you pour in the water, set your timer for twelve minutes. Get the pan to a simmer, give it a stir to prevent sticking and put on the lid. After exactly twelve minutes, strain the rice in a sieve, put the sieve over a pan and wait for one minute minimum. There you go. Perfect rice every time, nice and fluffy, no stickiness. Ignore those recipes that have you measuring precise amounts of water-to-rice. They are received wisdom from people who don't cook but who just copy from ancient, outmoded gurus!