Hello there,

I often try to go meatless with my pasta sauces and I always feel like there’s something missing…Oh yeah. It’s sausage. So you will understand my hesitancy when I came across this recipe in my new Thug Kitchen cookbook (Vegan). Although, I noticed that I kept flipping back to it, curious. So I made it and it was so delicious!  The flavour was full and rich and I missed neither the meat nor the cheese. I knew it was genuinely good because I ate it for lunch the next day and wanted to make more that same night. The original recipe recommends long pasta or “noodley pasta” to be exact, but I felt like my penne lisce (penne with no ridges) were calling my name and they were perrrrfect with this sauce.

Chickpea Bolognese and Pasta

INGREDIENTS

1 lb of “noodley pasta” such as linguine

Sauce

3 tbsp of olive oil

1/2 white or yellow onion, chopped

1 rib of celery finely chopped

1 carrot, finely chopped

1 cup of minced cremini or button mushrooms

1/4 tsp salt

1 clove of garlic , minced

1/2 tsp dried oregano

1/2 tsp of dried basil

Dash of red pepper flakes

1/2 cup of red wine

1 tbsp of tomato paste

1 1/2 cups of tomato sauce or good quality coulis (passata) such as Mutti

1 – 15 oz can (or 1+1/2 cups) of chopped chick peas

Mutti with Basil is MY NEW FAV!! I found that this sauce greatly contributed to the rich flavour I boast about in this recipe. This week, I made it with another brand that I like and it just wasn’t the same.  Mutti products can be found at Intermarché and certain Provigo Stores.

1+1/2 cups of canned chickpeas, chopped with a knife or pulsed briefly in a food processor until the pieces are about the size of watermelon seeds.

Chopped fresh Italian parsley and a few leaves of Basil for garnish (too good to omit)

DIRECTIONS

Cook pasta according to the package directions. Reserving a cup or so of pasta water, drain and set pasta aside.

While pasta is cooking , make the sauce. In a large deep skillet, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add the onion, celery and carrot and cook for 5 minutes until they soften and become golden in spots. Add the mushrooms and the salt and cook for another 2 minutes. Stir in the garlic herbs and pepper flakes, then pour in the wine.

Sauté for another two minutes until the wine cooks down a bit.

Stir in the tomato paste and sauce.

Bring to a gentle simmer and then fold in the chickpeas. Add a little pasta water if the sauce has thickened too much.

Taste for seasoning.

When everything is cooked and tender within the sauce, toss in the pasta.

Take it off the heat and top with fresh chopped parsley and a little basil.

*if you don’t want to use wine, use vegetable stock instead.

Recipe from “Thug Kitchen 101 – Fast as F*#k“. Yes, the cookbook is called that.lol

They may swear in this cookbook but they are serious about healthy eating. 🙂