The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #155902   Message #3672507
Posted By: Steve Shaw
27-Oct-14 - 07:12 PM
Thread Name: BS: Vegan mudcatters
Subject: RE: BS: Vegan mudcatters
Quote: "We have pasta three or four times a week and my repertoire in that regard has expanded beyond recognition."

We like pasta, but I do tend to stick to pretty basic recipes that I know:
I like puttanesca, with black olives and capers - super easy from storecupboard ingredients. Also penne al'arrabiata (or indeed any pasta shape), with heap loads of chilli. I often make bastardised pesto with whatever herbs I have. Also a basic tomato and garlic most frequently.

Any suggestions for other vegan-friendly ideas?


Begod, you're a person after me own heart! Unfortunately, your puttanesca (aka whore's pasta) omits anchovies, which I regard as sine qua non for that dish (Neapolitans may demur). Whatever, make your own tomato sauce for it with tons of garlic and basil, and don't use too much of it. I like to intensify my tomato sauce by adding sundried tomato paste, but that's just me. I hate claggy pasta dishes. And no bloody parmesan!! As for arrabbiata, avoid the cheapie penne pastas and make sure you buy bronze-die rigatoni. Yes it's more doughy but it's a delicious option. Don't use fresh chillis for arrabbiata: use crushed chilli flakes. Don't diss me 'til you've tried it. It's what Italians do in any case. And by all means go veggie, but I only do two arrabbiata dishes, one with chicken and one with wild keta salmon, the latter added raw to the sauce at the last minute before stirring into the rigatoni.

A very nice Sicilian dish that is veggie is pasta alla Trapanese. You blend skin-on ground almonds (definitely grind your own) with crushed garlic and plenty of it, loads of pestle-and-mortared basil, a worrying-large amount of EV olive oil, parmesan and a truckload of the best raw tomatoes you can get your hands on - cut 'em up. Just squidge the whole bloody lot to smithereens with your bare hands to make a sort of rough, rustic pesto. Stir that into cooked spaghetti and dole out on to warmed bowls. You'll die of happiness, especially if you wash it down with some Sicilian red.