Vegetarian Pasta Dish

You may feel as though I am repeating one of the previous pasta recipes that has been posted on this blog, but this one has some slight alterations and I thought I might as well share it with you. This tomato based pasta dish is really so versatile and one can basically do anything to it, but here is what I did with it this weekend.

Here is the recipe

Creamy Tomato and mushroom pasta, with toasted almonds:

Ingredients:

• 1 bag of penne pasta
• 10 or more field mushrooms, diced (chunky rather than sliced)  
• 1 punnet of cherry tomatoes, halved
• 1 tin chopped, peeled tomatoes
• 45ml cream
• 2 cloves garlic, crushed and chopped
• 5ml chilli flakes or 1 dried chilli chopped.
• 15ml tomato paste
• 30ml olive oil + extra for pasta

Some things that I added at the last minute that aren't in the picture, but that are an asset to the recipe are:

• 60ml red wine
• 5ml dried oreganum
• 100ml shaved almonds, toasted
• salt and pepper
• Parmesan

Ingredients

Method:

1. Bring a large pot of water to the boil, add salt to the water.
2. Add the pasta to the boiling water and allow to cook until al dente. Then drain.
3. In a smallish pot heat up the olive oil and add the garlic. Cook for 1 to 2 minutes.
4. Add the mushrooms to the garlic and olive oil and brown.
5. Add the tomatoes to the mushroom mixture and fry for 1-2 minutes.
6. Then add the tinned tomatoes and tomato paste and allow to simmer for 3 to 5 minutes.
7. Add the red wine and allow to simmer for 5 minutes.
8. Add the oreganum and chilli flakes and cream and allow to simmer for 2 minutes.
9. Taste sauce and add an appropriate amount of seasoning.
10. Pour some olive oil over the cooked pasta to help it not to stick together. 
11. To dish, fill a bowl with the pasta, add sauce, sprinkle with grated parmesan and toasted almonds and enjoy!



Wonderful!