The Greatest, Most Flavoursome, Vegetarian Spaghetti!

lightawake's Note:

Well the title says it all :) If you're a fan of pasta, vegetarian or not, please give this a go. It's so easy and unbelievably tasty, you'll never eat out for pasta again! I got tired of pasta that wasn't quite tasty enough and experimented during my early 20s, and came up with this. It doesn't have any onion or meat in it, so it's easy to serve it up to lots of people! Garlic bread and salad and red wine go so well with this.

• Total Time: 30 mins
• Prep Time: 30 mins
• Cook Time: 0 mins

Ingredients:

Servings: 2

• 1 large garlic clove, finely chopped
• 1 tablespoon capers, chopped
• 1/4 teaspoon paprika
• 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper (optional)
• 1/2 teaspoon basil
• 1 (14 ounce) can chopped tomatoes
• 2 tablespoons brown sugar (approx)
• 1/2 teaspoon pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon salt (approx)
• 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar (approx)
• 4 tablespoons red wine
• 1/2 cup parmesan cheese, grated
• some olive oil
• spaghetti, enough for 2 people

Directions:

1. Pour about 2T of olive oil in a deep frypan or wok, and on a very low heat, fry the first 5 ingredients (up to basil) for about 30 seconds until it becomes fragrant. Garlic burns very easily so the next step has to be ready to go.
2. Before garlic burns, pour in tomatoes and stir in, turning up the heat to medium.
3. Add next 5 ingredients (up to red wine), stir thoroughly, then bring to the boil. Check to see that the flavour is balanced between the salt, sugar and vinegar. it should have a bit of a kick - but if you can taste the sugar or vinegar quite strongly, adjust taste, very carefully. eg. if it tastes like vinegar, add another 1/4 t sugar.
4. Reduce to medium heat, cover and simmer for 15 minutes until reduced.
5. In the meantime, grate parmesan cheese, boil large saucepan of generously salted water (you don't need oil).
6. Boil pasta according to instructions - try not to touch it too much, and not to overcook it - bite-test it every 30 seconds when it gets close to the finish time. Pasta should be juicy and springy, not sticky and limp.
7. Drain pasta, toss with olive oil, then serve onto plates. Top with sauce, parmesan, and cracked pepper. Bon apetit!

Reviews

[Jud!th]

This is definitely going into the regular rotation at my house. I made the recipe exactly as specified - it came out a little too vinegar-y for us, but oh! so tasty. Simple, delicious, healthy. Yum!

[Dreamer in Ontario]

This is very good spaghetti. I made it exactly as written except for using fresh basil since I have it growing in the garden and loved the end result. Thanks for posting.

[BarbieRose]

Thanks for the help on what to serve. Last night was the Italian-themed dinner party and the guests loved it. I didn't triple the recipe but made it three separate times and took no chances with the wonderful taste. Barb