Slow
By Gennaro Contaldo
Not Too Tricky
serves 6
About the recipe
Lentils are the perfect alternative to meat in a traditional Bolognese sauce. Simple to prepare with a few basic ingredients, this makes a wonderful hearty, nutritious meal. Pappardelle pasta goes really well with ragù sauces, but you could use tagliatelle, penne, farfalle or any pasta shape that you prefer. For extra bulk and flavour, I have added pumpkin and mushrooms, but you could swap them out with other veggies or omit altogether for a simpler sauce – always remembering the basic soffritto ingredients of onion, celery and carrot.
Recipe From
Ingredients
280g/10oz/scant 1½ cups dried brown or green lentils
5 tbsp extra virgin olive oil, plus extra for drizzling
1 small onion, finely chopped
1 celery stalk, finely chopped
1 small carrot, finely chopped
100g/3 ½ oz/scant ½ cup pumpkin flesh, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, whole, peeled and crushed
200g/7oz/scant ¼ cup chestnut button mushrooms, thinly sliced
2 bay leaves
400ml/14fl oz/1 ¾ cups tomato passata (strained tomatoes)
900ml/31fl oz/3½ cups hot vegetable stock (or use a stock cube)
500g/1lb 2oz/scant 4 cups dried egg-free pappardelle pasta
rustic bread, to serve (optional)
chilli flakes, to serve (optional)
Method
- Rinse the lentils under plenty of cold water, checking for any impurities.
- Heat the olive oil in a pan, then sweat the onion, celery, carrot, pumpkin and garlic on a medium heat for a couple of minutes. Stir in the lentils, mushrooms and bay leaves and cook for a couple of minutes.
- Add the passata and stock, bring to the boil, then lower the heat and gently simmer for about 1 hour, until the lentils are cooked. You may need more or less stock depending on the type of lentils, so add this gradually.
- Near the end of the cooking time, bring a large pot of salted water to the boil and cook the pasta until ‘al dente’. Using tongs, transfer the pasta to the lentil ragu, mixing well and adding a little of the hot pasta water to loosen the sauce.
- Remove from the heat and serve with rustic bread, a drizzle of olive oil and some chilli flakes, if desired.
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