Surface Tensions

I love to cook but I don’t normally post a lot of recipes on here for a couple of reasons. I have a pretty high tolerance for food boredom and tend to make the same thing over and over. And a lot of what I make is pretty much right out of a cookbook. Isa really doesn’t need another fanboy saying, “Wow, VwaV really rocks!”

And, I rarely measure things. So pretty much all of the quantities that follow are a WAG and you should feel free to change them as you like. You love garlic? Bung in some more cloves. Don’t like heat? Leave out the red pepper. I promise, you won’t hurt my feelings.

So, on to the recipe. The sauce started out as Dreena Burton’s “Hide the Lentils” Tomato Sauce. That didn’t turn out too well for me, the lentils didn’t get cooked and the taste was a bit bland. So I changed things up a bit and this is what I ended up with. Enjoy!

For the lentils:

• 3.5 cups of water
• .75 cups of lentils

The pasta:

• 1 pound of pasta

For the sauce:

• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 green bell pepper, chopped
• 8 oz mushrooms, sliced
• 4 cloves garlic
• olive oil
• 1 teaspoon rosemary
• 1 teaspoon basil
• 1 tablespoon oregano
• .5 teaspoon crushed red pepper
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 1 jar sliced green olives
• 1 can sliced black olives
• 28 oz can of crushed tomatoes
• .5 teaspoon of agave necter
• 1 teaspoon red wine vinegar

Combine the water and lentils in a medium size pot and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for 30 minutes. Cook the pasta according to the package directions.

Heat the olive oil in a skillet over medium heat and then add the onions, peppers and mushrooms. Saute for about seven minutes or until the mushrooms have released their liquid. Then add the garlic and the olives and cook for about a minute longer. Add the spices, the tomatoes, the agave necter and the cooked lentils, increase the heat and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for about 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. If the mixture begins to stick or looks too thick, add some water. When it’s finished cooking, turn off the heat and stir in the vinegar.

Combine the sauce and pasta and serve!

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 15th, 2008 at 20:02 and is filed under Cooking, Food, Veganism.You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.