spaghetti

See my other recipes in English at - Vadani Kaval Gheta

I just hate to eat same old spaghetti drowned in same old Marinara sauce that you get in Italian restaurant chains. Even good pasta books have nice vegetarian pasta recipes but these restaurants wont budge! You will be luck if you get any vegetables without asking for it! And that turns me away from most of these places. So I try to make different pasta sauces at home like Basil Pesto, Sun dried Tomato Pest, Roasted Bell pepper Sauce, Home made tomato sauce. This recipe is one of the easy ones -

Spaghetti

3 portions of Spaghetti *

4 medium Tomatoes

1/4th of a Onion

1/2 cup Green Peas

1 small Carrot (or 5-6 baby carrots)

1 Clove of Garlic

1/2 tsp Italian Herb Mix (dried) **

1 Tbsp Oil

Salt and freshly ground black pepper per taste

1 Tbsp Pine Nuts (coarsely ground)

5 Cups Water

Keep water in a large vessel for boiling and add pinch of salt. Add spaghetti to boiling water and let it cook. As soon as noodle is cooked drain keep aside reserving about a cup of water. Meanwhile dice three tomatoes, cut onion, remaining tomato and carrots lengthwise. Crush garlic and set aside. In a heavy bottom saucepan add oil and dd crushed garlic and onion. Saute onion till brown. Add carrots saue for few more minutes. Now add diced tomatoes let them cook halfway. Now crush the herb mix with your palms and add it to the cooking tomatoes. Also add salt and black pepper. Add remaining tomato and green peas. Saute for a minute. Now check the consistency of sauce, add reserved water if its too thick. Add cooked noodles and ground pine nuts. Mix well and serve warm with a piece of bread.

Tips -

1. You can use broccoli, cauliflower florets in this pasta.

2. You can substitute 2 Tbsp tomato paste or 6 tbsp tomato puree instead of 3 diced tomatoes.

3. Pine nuts give creamy flavor to the pasta. You can use cashews or walnuts instead.

* Check this link to see how to measure portion size for Spaghetti - http://www.ehow.com/how_2097117_measure-portion-sizes.html

** I buy my herb mix from Trader Joe's. It perfect when you are in hurry or ran out of fresh herbs.

This vegan spaghetti is on its way to the event 'Its a vegan World - Italian' hosted by one of my favorite blogger Vaishali!

Please add your comments, suggestions to my original post @ http://vadanikavalgheta.blogspot.com/2009/02/spaghetti.html