Desi’s accused me of cooking a lot of pasta recently because I’m hosting the It’s A Vegan World: Italian event.
Between you and me, there is maybe– just maybe– some truth to that. But then again, why not eat all the pasta you can? Apparently Sophia Loren eats it every day, and just look at her! I can always dream, can’t I?
I add vodka to this very light sauce because it gives the sauce a great depth of flavor. Besides, the alcohol all cooks off, so rest assured you aren’t going to get tipsy after dinner.
Angel-hair pasta is best in this recipe, although regular spaghetti would be fine. The secret here is to add a ton of veggies. Use anything you have on hand. I used mushrooms, green beans and onions, but you could add bell peppers, eggplant, scallions (spring onions), even leafies like arugula, baby spinach or watercress.
I stir in some walnuts to give the pasta more crunch and texture. Pine nuts would work great too.
So here’s my easy, weeknight pasta recipe. Try and use whole-wheat pasta to make sure your dish is as healthy as can be.
Enjoy, everyone!
Angel-Hair Pasta with Green Beans and Mushrooms
Ingredients
- 1/2 pound whole-grain angel-hair pasta , cooked according to instructions in salted water.
- 1 cup of chopped green beans.
- Stop the cooking as soon as the pasta is al dente. Drain the pasta and beans and set aside. Reserve about 1/2 to 1 cup of the pasta water.
- 1/4 cup of olive oil
- 1 medium onion , thinly sliced
- 4 cloves garlic , thinly sliced
- 6 sun-dried tomatoes , thinly sliced
- 1 tsp dried oregano or 2-3 tbsp of fresh oregano
- 1/3 cup of lightly toasted and coarsely chopped walnuts.
Instructions
- Cook the pasta in salted water. In the last five minutes of cooking, add the green beans to the pot. Drain, and set aside with 1/2 to 1 cup of pasta cooking water.
- Saute, stirring frequently, until the onion softens and turns translucent.
- Heat the oil and add onion and garlic. Saute for five minutes until onions are translucent.
- Add 1 pound of sliced button or cremini mushrooms and 1/3 cup of vodka
- Saute the mushrooms until they start to caramelize and the liquid is mostly gone.
- Add the sundried tomatoes and oregano
- Add fresh-ground black pepper and salt to taste.
- Stir everything together, then add the pasta and beans. Add 1/2 cup of the pasta-boiling water.
- Toss together and continue cooking on very low heat another couple of minutes.
- Stir in the walnuts.
- Let the pasta stand another couple of minutes before serving.
Asha says
February 12, 2009 atDelicious! Love the green beans.
Mahimaa's kitchen says
February 12, 2009 atpasta looks delicious..mushrooms are so versatile. they taste good in any dish..
Ashwini says
February 13, 2009 atHi First time here..Lovely color from the beans..Pasta looks tempting and delicious..
Sharmila says
February 13, 2009 atThat is the way I love to cook … dunk in every veggie that comes my way .. of course dunkable veggies .. I will keep away the turai/lauki from pasta/sphagetti.
🙂 Love the sauce. 🙂
ashok says
February 13, 2009 atLovely recipe. I will try it with homemade fresh pasta though called pasta fresco. An easy recipe for that is given in my blog linked to this post
vegwife says
February 13, 2009 atI love pasta! And that looks awesome, especially with the mushrooms! Hubby doesn’t like to eat too much pasta, but I may be able to convince him of this one since it has mushrooms! 😀
Cham says
February 13, 2009 atThe green bean and mush looks awesome with the pasta. Very pretty dish!
Rathna says
February 14, 2009 atHi Vaishali,
Can you please send me the picture for the entry you’ve sent me…It’s missing 🙂
Trupti says
February 14, 2009 atpasta looks very delicious Vaishali
vidhas says
February 16, 2009 atLovely pasta, my kids love this. Can you come and collect something from my blog.
Shreya says
February 16, 2009 atlooks so delicious.. the green beans and mushroom combo is so good:-)
Usha says
February 18, 2009 atLooks perfect 🙂
Shantee' says
February 19, 2009 atI made this last night and it was yummy! However, I had to put soy sauce on it at the end, since I couldn’t get the flavor right. I’ll definitely make it again!
Shantee' says
February 19, 2009 atI made this last night and it was yummy! However, I had to put soy sauce on it at the end, since I couldn’t get the flavor right. I’ll definitely make it again!