I am a big fan of Italian flavours and I believe that there is nothing better than an easy pasta dish for a light, weekday dinner. I often browse recipes on the website of “Forks over Knives”, where I have recently come across this pasta dish. When I prepared it for the first time, it was an instant hit for us. It has fresh, spring-like qualities and it is an incredibly well-balanced dish, in my view. The vegetables just work perfectly well in its sauce and the dish is simply very delicious.
When I looked at the recipe more closely, I discovered that it was developed by Ella Woodward, the author of the popular food blog “Deliciously Ella”. She deserves full credit for this marvellous spaghetti. Nevertheless, I made some minor modifications to the original recipe due to the fact that some ingredients are not always available in the area where I live.
Let’s see how to make this marvellous mediterranean spaghetti with my minor changes.
Ingredients:
- 1 packet of durum pasta
- 1 red bell pepper, cut into small pieces
- 1 yellow bell pepper, cut into small pieces
- 2 plum tomatoes, deseeded and sliced into eights (if plum tomatoes are not available, other types can be used)
- 2 tablespoons of tomato purée
- Juice of 1 lime
- 1 large or 2 smaller aubergines, sliced into small rounds and then quarters (alternatively use 1 zucchini, as per the original recipe)
- 1 bunch of spinach
- Handful of olives (use deseeded and sliced ones if possible)
- 12 cherry tomatoes, quartered
- Salt according to taste
- 2 tablespoons of Italian or French dried herbs
- Pepper according to taste
- 200 ml water
Preparation method:
- Boil the pasta, according to packet instructions. Once it is ready, set aside.
- Put the sliced aubergines in a bowl, sprinkle with salt and pepper and olive oil. Set aside.
- Put the peppers, tomatoes, salt and dried herbs into a saucepan. Add the water to the saucepan and simmer the vegetables slowly. In case the vegetables start to brown, add more water and stir gently. Slowly cook for a few minutes.
- Once the vegetables wilted, add the tomato purée and the juice of the lime.
- Cook the vegetables for a few more minutes and let it slowly combine to form the sauce.
- Once the sauce is ready, add the cherry tomatoes, aubergine slices (or zucchini slices) and the spinach leaves. Cook gently until the ingredients mix well.
- Add the olives and additional dried herbs according to taste.
- Combine the sauce with the pasta and mix well. Cook for a further a few minutes as the pasta will need to be heated.
This pasta dish is perfect on its own. If you prefer, you may serve it with parmesan.
Bon appetite!