Quick and Healthy Sunday Pasta

Cooking my first post holiday meal was not that easy. My mind and heart were still in beautiful, warm Mauritius relaxing on the beach, and my body was in Johannesburg. It would be easier to pack the family into the car, and go off to a restaurant, but I felt like a home cooked meal, packed with crunchy, fresh vegetables (after a wonderful week of relaxing and soaking up the sun!)! So this post- holiday meal had to be quick, healthy, and easy to clean up.

Despite the very simple process of boiling a pot of spaghetti or tagliatelli, it is very easy to over or under measure how much pasta you actually need to boil. Investing in a good pasta measuring device/ spoon helps to guide you as to how much pasta you actually need for 1, 2 ,3 or 4 people. Mine is one I picked up on sale. It has different sized holes for the different portion sizes and has a nifty stirring fork on the end too!

 

Quick and Healthy Sunday Pasta:

Measure out 2 servings of Tagliatelli pasta

2T canola oil

2 cloves garlic

1/2 a teaspoon of crushed red chillies

1/2 a brown onion, chopped into big cubes

4 Tablespoons of basil pesto

1/4 cup canned Italian Tomatoes

8 baby Rosa tomatoes, halved

4 baby marrows, peeled lengthways to make long strips of marrow

1/2 cup sliced mushrooms

8- 10 caper berries

3 baby corn, chopped into smaller pieces

Handful of baby spinach

Method:

– While the pasta is on the boil, heat a large non- stick pan on medium heat. Once the pasta is done, strain but reserve half a cup of the ‘pasta water’.

– When hot, add the oil and onions, stirring until onions are soft. Add caper berries, garlic and chillies. Give it a stir and add the mushrooms and baby corn. Follow with halved rosa tomatoes. Stir until the tomatoes are soft. Add the Italian tomatoes and stir. Let the sauce cook for 2 minutes and add the basil pesto. Once the sauce is fragrant and cooked down, add the pasta to the sauce.

– Increase the heat slightly so that the mixture starts to bubble and will almost look like a stir fry. Lastly add the baby marrow strips and baby spinach. Stir well. If the pasta starts to stick at the bottom of the pan, use the received pasta water to add a bit of liquid to the dish. The pasta water also helps to loosen the pasta if they begin to stick.

– Transfer to a heated serving plate and serve with a shaving of Parmesan Cheese.