At the beginning of this month, I spent a short week in Bologna: the food capital of Italy. In Bologna the pasta con ragù was invented and you may know it as the pasta bolognese. During a cooking workshop, I learned how to make it and the real pasta bolognese with meat has to simmer for about two hours. So for a quick weekday meal it is not suitable. Besides, I'm trying to eat less meat, so the idea for a vegetarian pasta bolognese quickly came up.
Vegetarian pasta bolognese
20 minutes
Vegetarian pasta bolognese
The secret to a good pasta sauce is not in using a lot of spices. You will quickly notice this when you make your own sauces. So how do you make a tasty pasta sauce? With fresh vegetables! For the tomato sauce itself, I do use passata for the sake of time, but I then add carrot, celery and fresh basil, among other things. You only need a little salt and pepper to season it all, but all the other fresh vegetables do the rest. If you like it, you can add rosemary and oregano. However, it tastes great even without these herbs. This vega bolognese is ready in just twenty minutes and I can guarantee that it is so incredibly flavorful that you will make it many times over.
What you need:
2
200 gr pasta
400 ml passata
1 tbsp tomato paste
1 large carrot
1 stalk of celery
1 white onion
300 gr vegetarian minced meat
1 tsp rosemary
1 tsp oregano
handful of Parmesan cheese
fresh basil
salt and pepper
olive oil
What to do:
1
Bring a pan of salted water to a boil and cook the pasta according to package directions. Catch a cup of the cooking liquid while draining.
2
Chop the onion and finely chop the carrot and celery. Heat some oil in a pan and fry the onion until translucent. Then add the celery and carrot and fry briefly.
3
Then add the veggie mince and cook for 5 minutes. Then add the tomato paste and passata with a pinch of salt and pepper, the rosemary and oregano. Put the lid on the pan and simmer for a few minutes.
4
Drain the pasta and add to the sauce along with the pasta water. Let cook for another minute.
5
Ladle the pasta onto plates and serve with the fresh basil and (vegan) cheese.
6
Enjoy and don't forget to share your dish in your Instastory with the tag @easyculi!
