Rocket and Tomato Pasta

Hi guys!


Monday again and time for another vegetarian recipe. It is easily prepared vegan as well. It is rocket & tomato pasta. I came across this recipe in Gwyneth Paltrow's book "Notes from my Kitchen table". I love her book whenever I am in search of vegetarian recipes. It's not an entirely vegetarian cook book, but there are a lot of vegetarian recipes or comments on how to make a recipe vegetarian or vegan. As I like to keep things simple every once in while, I love easy recipes that don't take hours of preparation. 


Here's the recipe:


2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
4 cloves garlic, peeled and thinly sliced
1/4 teaspoon crushed chillies
1 teaspoon fennel seeds, crushed with a mallet or pestle and mortar
3 400g cans whole peeled tomatoes with their juice
coarse salt
freshly ground black pepper
350g spaghetti, tagliatelle or fresh pasta
75g rocket (3 large handfuls)
grated Parmesan cheese, to serve


1) Heat the olive oil in a large saucepan over medium-low heat. Add the garlic, crushed chillies, and fennel, and cook, stirring for 3 minutes, or until very fragrant. 


2) Add the tomatoes and their juice, season with salt and pepper, turn the heat to high and bring to the boil. Turn the heat to medium-low and let the sauce cook on a low boil for 1 hour.


3) About 10 minutes before you're ready to eat, boil the spaghetti in salted boiling water. A minute before it's al dente, add the rocket to the pasta pan. 


4) Drain the pasta and rocket and toss them with the tomato sauce. Serve each portion with plenty of grated Parmesan.  


Serves: 4
Active preparation time: 15 minutes
Total preparation time: 1 hour and 15 minutes


Here's how mine turned out:

I put the rocket in the sauce just before serving instead of putting it in boiling water. This way, although it is wilted, they maintain a little bite which adds a great touch to the texture. The chillies and fennel seeds also add a nice twist to the tomato sauce. I am always adding a pinch of sugar to my tomato sauce, it's how I was taught. As I had dried home-made pasta, I wanted to use it instead of a store-bought kind. 


If you want to go vegan with the recipe: serve it without parmesan and cheese a pasta that is made without eggs. 


Have fun trying!