Oil-Free Tomato Pasta
This delicious pasta recipe is oil-free and includes a homemade flavourful tomato sauce.
Ingredients
- ½ white onion diced
- 2 sticks celery sliced
- 2 - 3 cloves garlic crushed
- 1 tsp dried Italian herbs mix or oregano, basil etc.
- 1 tsp smoked paprika
- Freshly ground black pepper to season
- 1 jar tomato passata or tinned tomatoes 100% tomatoes
- ½ red bell pepper sliced
- 7 - 8 button mushrooms cleaned and sliced
- Handful black olives pitted
- 250 grams wholewheat penne pasta
- Water for sautéeing use some of the water from cooking the pasta
- Fresh curly or flat leaf parsley including stalks
- Sprinkle of nutritional yeast optional
Instructions
- Heat up a large frying pan with enough water to cover the bottom of the pan
- Meanwhile, prepare the chopped vegetables
- Once the water starts steaming, add the onion, celery, garlic and bell peppers to the pan and spread evenly. Let simmer for a few minutes. Stir every now and again to make sure all the veggies cook evenly in the water.
- Add the smoked paprika, dried herbs and black pepper. Mix well and continue simmering for 5 more minutes.
- Put a pot of water on and bring to the boil. Add the pasta to the boiling water and cook according to the time on the packet instructions (usually between 8 and 15 minutes).
- Mix in the mushrooms with the other veggies and continue to simmer. Add more water if the pan is dry. A good trick is to use some of the pasta water which adds starch from the pasta and helps thicken your sauce giving a creamier end result.
- Mix in the tomato passata to the veggies along with the olives and the finely diced stalks of the parsley, and nutritional yeast (if using) and continue to simmer until the pasta is ready.
- Once the pasta is cooked, drain it then combine it with the veggie tomato sauce. Mix well making sure all pieces of pasta are covered in sauce before serving.
- Serve with the fresh parsley sprinkled on top.