dinner tonight - multicoloured vegan pasta

[baratron]

Tonight's dinner: tricolore pasta twists with tomato, red pepper, zucchini and chickpeas, garlic oil, basil and black pepper. Yum.

Ingredients:
One average-size zucchino/courgette
One red pepper
One tin of chopped plum tomatoes in juice (400g)
Half a tin of chickpeas/garbanzo beans (drained weight 120g)
100g of fusilli tricolore per person
2 teaspoons of garlic olive oil
Sprinkling of dried basil
Black pepper & salt to taste

Method:

1. Chop the red pepper and courgette/zucchino into cubes about 1-1.5cm width. (I usually cut the courgette first into 4 quarters along its cross-section, then chop it into what would be discs if I hadn't just quartered it. Does that make sense? Probably not :) You can chop it into discs first, then quarter each one, but it takes a lot longer).
   
2. Put the oil in a wok and heat until it's hot. Boil some water in a kettle or saucepan.
   
3. Toss the red pepper and courgette pieces into the hot oil and stir fry for about 5 minutes. Add the basil, black pepper and salt.
   
4. Stick the pasta in the saucepan with the boiling water. Drain the chickpeas and rinse them.
   
5. Put the tomatoes and chickpeas into the wok and cook the whole lot for around 8-10 minutes. The pasta will probably need about 10 minutes as well - check the packet.
   
6. Check the sauce tastes good, add more basil, salt and/or black pepper. Drain the pasta. Serve.

The sauce makes enough for 2-3 portions.

Notes:

1. People who can tolerate fresh garlic should use a couple of cloves of garlic instead of/as well as the garlic olive oil. Why not?!
   
2. You could use haricot beans or butter beans instead of the chickpeas, any kind of white bean works well.
   
3. Vegans & vegetarians who don't need to be careful about the fat content of their diet could add finely-chopped vegan bacon to the sauce. Toss the bacon into the wok along with the red pepper and courgette so it can cook nice and crispy before you add the tomato.
   
4. Omnivores could add finely-chopped pig bacon or pancetta to the sauce at the same point.
   
5. Waitrose's Organic Chopped Tomatoes in Rich Tomato Sauce are fantastic - the sauce is really gloopy. Thank you artremis for the suggestion.
   

Comments

[kake]

That sounds tasty. I love chickpeas; in emergency situations I eat them plain out of the can. I think fresh parsley would be a nice addition to your dish, if you have any on hand.

Those chopped tomatoes also sound good; I shop with Ocado, so I'll be looking out for them next time I place an order.