Recipe: Tagliatelle With Fresh Vegetables

Wide tagliatelle noodles have a special buttery quality quite different from spaghetti and penne, and taste wonderful tossed with lightly cooked vegetables, a few tablespoons pesto paste, a little tuna or grilled chicken, if preferred, and garnished with fresh very tasty pea shoots.

This recipe is a take on the dish that was served up to us in a quaint pub in the tiny village of Rostrevor in the very pretty southeast corner of Northern Ireland, overlooking the Carlingford Loch.

Tagliatelle With Fresh Vegetables

Serves: 3-4

Ingredients

• 500 gm tagliatelle or pappardelle or wide noodles, uncooked
• 1 tbsp butter
• 20 cherry tomatoes
• 1 tbsp chopped basil
• 4 tbsp pesto paste
• 1 red capsicum, chopped lengthwise into thin strips
• 1 cup baby spinach, chopped
• 1 tsp freshly crushed black pepper
• 1 tbsp roughly crushed garlic
• 2-3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 1 cup pasta water
• Large handful pea shoots, for garnish
• 30 gm chives, chopped, for serving
• 3-4 tbsp grated Parmesan cheese, for serving

Method

• Boil the tagliatelle 2-3 minutes short of al dente -- not too soft. Al dente means 'to the tooth' or pasta that has a bite to it.
  Packets of pasta usually have their cooking time listed on them.
  To make a pasta al dente, subtract one minute or 1½ minutes from the cooking time and for this recipe boil it 2-3 minutes less than al dente too because the pasta will be fried with vegetables later.
• Drain the pasta in a channi or colander that you have kept already ready over a pot and keep aside 1 cup of the pasta water.
  Add 1 tbsp butter.
  Toss.
• In a large frying pan saute the slices of red capsicum with the garlic for 3-4 minutes.
  Add the pasta water and the cherry tomatoes.
  Cook for another 5 minutes covered so the tomatoes steam.
  Add the pasta and the pesto.
  Toss lightly.
  Cook for 1 minute.
  Add the spinach, basil, toss lightly and cook for 1-2 minutes more.
  Serve on individual plates or in pasta bowls and garnish each serving with pea shoots, a generous tbsp or two Parmesan cheese and chopped chives.

Note: For a non-vegetarian version of this pasta, while adding the spinach add half of a 250 gm tin of tuna (tinned in water) or 250 gm grilled chicken to the frying pan.

Use pre-made, bottled pesto or make your own. To make pesto from scratch use the pesto recipe in Kshamaya Daniel's Spicy Pesto Eggs.

For a vegan version of this dish make pesto from scratch without the cheese or use vegan cheese and also serve the pasta with vegan cheese. And skip the butter and up the amount of olive oil.

For a Jain version, skip the garlic paste and make the pesto from scratch without the garlic.

For a healthier version of this pasta use whole wheat pasta, skip the butter and use only a light sprinkling of Parmesan cheese.

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