Vegetable Pasta Sauce

• Ingredients
• Method
• Nutritional content

Ingredients

Serves 6

• 1 onion, finely chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, crushed
• 1 carrot, grated
• 2 sticks celery, diced
• 1 red capsicum, diced
• 200 g mushrooms, sliced
• 1 can diced tomato
• 1 Tbsp tomato paste
• 1 cup vegetable stock
• 1/2 cup red wine (optional)
• 1/2 cup fresh herbs, chopped, or 2 Tbsp dried herbs (e.g. basil, oregano, thyme, marjoram)
• 1 tsp cinnamon powder
• Tabasco sauce to taste
• Olive oil

Method

1. Fry the onion and garlic, with a little olive oil to prevent them sticking, in a medium-sized saucepan until just tender.
2. Add the carrot, celery, canned tomato, tomato paste, vegetable stock, red wine, herbs and cinnamon powder. Add a few drops of tabasco sauce to taste. Simmer for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the capsicum and mushrooms. Continue simmering with the lid on until the mushrooms are cooked. If there is too much liquid for your preference, simmer with the lid off until the liquid is reduced to a desirable amount. 
3. Serve over your preferred type of pasta.

Preparation time: 10 minutes
Cooking time: 15 minutes
Difficulty rating: Easy

Tips

• This is a basic vegetable sauce, but you can choose different vegetables to use for a little variety (or availability of what's in the house).
• Fresh herbs work well if there are any on hand. Otherwise, dried herbs are just as good. These, too, can be mixed and matched for variety.
• Works well with any type of pasta, especially filled ones such as tortellini or ravioli.
• This sauce is also great with rice, couscous, quinoa, etc.

Nutritional content

Nutritional analysis per serve (not including pasta):

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Article Dates:

Modified: 22/3/2011

Created: 18/2/2011