This fortnight's Cookbook Challenge theme is rice/noodles. I decided to go with a pasta dish from 101 Meatless Family Dishes by John Ettinger, published in 1995. Despite the cheesy cover photo, it's actually a really good cookbook. Most vegetarian cookbooks focus too much on tofu and weird products that you can only find at health food stores, whereas this cookbook just has recipes that are delicious and full of vegetable-y goodness. This pasta is just as good as it sounds and looks, if not better. 1 pound fettuccine
4 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
1/2 medium onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/8 tsp red pepper flakes, or to taste
1/8 tsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp chopped fresh oregano or 1/2 tsp dried
3 tomatoes, peeled and chopped with juice or 1 can (28 ounces) with juice
2 tbsp minced fresh Italian parsley
1 bell pepper, seeded and julienned
4 to 5 mushrooms, sliced
grated Parmesan cheese (optional)
Cook fettuccine according to package directions, drain.
Combine 2 tablespoons olive oil, onion, garlic, red pepper flakes, cayenne and oregano in a saucepan and saute 6 minutes.
Add tomatoes and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer 20 minutes, stirring occasionally, then stir in parsley.
Meanwhile, heat remaining 2 tablespoons olive oil in a skillet and saute pepper and mushrooms until just softened, 5 to 7 minutes.
Toss pasta with pepper mixture, then with the sauce. Serve with Parmesan if desired.
yum! good on you for cracking out an old book!
ReplyDeleteThat looks great, full of fresh flavours and a good mid-week recipe.
ReplyDeletelooks a delicious dish and an interesting coocbook!
ReplyDeleteI love old vegetarian cookbooks and while I agree that some do have lots of unusual ingredients, some like tofu and beans are easy to find in most supermarkets and give a good serve of protein to a meal, which is important in a vegetarian diet - see this post for the reason I mention it http://thestonesoup.com/blog/2010/05/the-number-1-mistake-of-new-vegetarians-how-to-avoid-it/
Oh, I know all about what is important in a vegetarian diet, I've more or less been a vegetarian for over ten years. My point was that vegetarian cookbooks tend to mostly have recipes for dishes that are mostly tofu and less common items like sprouts. I like that this cookbook focuses more on stuff that tastes good instead of stuff that is just earthy crunchy.
ReplyDeleteLove the cheesy cover and the dish sounds delicious!
ReplyDeleteYou really hit the challenge head on....brave pulling out a book from 1995! The dish looks great....I will have to try this for a future meatless Monday!
ReplyDeleteI actually have very few cookbooks that were published in this century, haha.
ReplyDelete