Hello all, happy Hump Day!

Today I am sharing my recipe for a gorgeous, light, tomato based pasta dish that I love making in the Spring and Summer. It is packed with vegetables and goodness and I think you’re going to love it as much as I do.

I like to use fusilli with this dish because the spirals soak up all of the ingredients and every bite is different. The vegetables that I use in this dish all complement each other really well, I added chorizo but the dish is wonderful without it, I just fancied it on the day. It makes a great vegetable dish without the meat.

Side note: I also think that courgettes or mushrooms would be really nice in this dish. Especially spiralised with linguine.

The sun-dried tomato paste that I make in this dish is also a perfect base for the tomato sauce in vegetable lasagne, it honestly adds to every tomato based pasta dish. It gives it a nice summery twist, it tastes lighter, sweeter and more like sunshine food.

Ingredients:

• 3 sundried tomatoes (sliced)
• 2 cloves of garlic (diced)
• Half a red chilli (diced)

• Portion of pasta
• Sliced chorizo (optional)
• 1/3 aubergine (diced)
• 7 cherry tomatoes (quartered)
• 7 pitted black olives (halved)
• Salt
• Pepper
• Chilli flakes
• Handful of rocket
• Tomato paste

How to make:

Sun-dried tomato paste:

• Put the sun-dried tomatoes into a pestle and mortar and bash with the pestle until they start to form a paste.
• Add the garlic and chillies with a drizzle of olive oil and continue to grind. Season once everything starts to stick together and form a paste.

Pasta:

• To (generously) salted water, add your pasta and cook according to instructions
• Ensure that you season throughout
• To a hot frying pan add olive oil. When that is hot turn the heat to medium and add peppers and aubergine. Let these fry for 5 minutes until they have softened, then move to a sideplate
• To the empty pan, add a little bit of oil and the sun-dried tomato paste and chorizo
• After a couple of minutes add the cherry tomatoes and olives on a low heat along with a teaspoon (or more if you fancy) of chilli flakes). After a few minutes, gently mush the tomatoes with a spatula or the back of a spoon
• In a cup, reserve at least half a cup of water. Add the cooked peppers and aubergine along with a tablespoon (or big squeeze) of tomato paste
• Mix together until everything is coated with tomato paste and add half a cup of water in order to emulsify the sauce. Turn the heat up and season. After a couple of minutes add a handful of rocket
• Add your pasta and ensure everything is combined before you plate up and enjoy!

Let me know in the comments if you make this dish, I always love seeing other people’s creations.