The French call the tomato ‘pomme d’amour’, the apple of love, and these juicy red badboys are good for you in a fuck tonne of different ways.  Full of vitamins C and E and rich in antioxidants they help prevent heart disease, support bone health and are known for their anti-cancer benefits (specifically combatting prostate cancer, which understandably I think we would all like to avoid).  

You can make a load of great things with these tasty morsels from a biting and refreshing Panzanella, to a nourishing soup to a truly killer Bloody Mary.  Today we’re going to focus on one of our kitchen staples - The Red or Dead pasta sauce.  

Being a young couple working in the city, getting up early and coming home (at times, very) late, our household eats a reasonable amount of pasta.  To avoid boredom and insanity we try and change it up quite a lot, through experience we’ve found it's really convenient to have a decent base sauce from which to build from and this is our go-to.  From it I’ve been known to construct the likes of lentil bolognese and lasagna, however to be honest it’s pretty damn good on it’s own.  The trick is letting the vegetables char in the oven just enough so that you get a hint of charcoal flavour through the dish.  It’s quite variable so feel free to throw in what you have the fridge, celery and carrots work particularly well and a handful of mushrooms never goes amiss!

We make this at least 4 times a month, and I’ll often stockpile a batch or two in the freezer making those late night home cooked dinners just that little bit easier!

Red or Dead Pasta Sauce
Makes 3 Cups | Serves 4

Prep Time: 15 mins

Cook Time 1 hour

Ingredients:

12 Tomatoes, sliced widthways

2 Red Peppers, quartered

1 Red Onion, quartered

1 Courgette (or zucchini for our friends across the pond), trimmed & sliced lengthways

5 Garlic Cloves, Large

3 Tsp Salt

5 Tbsp Olive Oil

2 Tbsp Balsamic Vinegar

1 Cup Basil, packed
500g Wholewheat Spaghetti

Method

1. Pre-heat oven to 200 degrees Celsius.

2. Across 2 large baking dishes, spread the vegetables making sure each has enough space (it can be a tight squeeze, this is just to maximise surface area for char), place the garlic gloves, skin on, anywhere you like

3. Drizzle the olive oil and sprinkle the salt over the vegetables

4. Place in oven at 200 degrees for 45-50 minutes, until a decent char has appeared on the onion, tomatoes and peppers.

5. Place a pan of salted water on the stove on a high heat to boil for the spaghetti.

6. Remove from oven and let sit until the garlic cloves are cool enough to handle, once you can pick them up squeeze them into the blender followed by all the vegetables.  I like to add around 1/3 of the olive oil and cooking juices from the dish.  Add the balsamic vinegar and basil.

7. Add the spaghetti to the pan.

8. Puree for around 30-60 seconds, depending on the consistency you’re looking for from your sauce.  Test and adjust the vinegar and salt to taste.

9. Once the spaghetti has cooked, drain and return to the pan.  Add around half a cup of the sauce to the spaghetti and stir to coat.

10. Serve piled with the rest of the sauce on top.  I recommend then covering liberally in Nutritional Yeast for an excellent cheesy topping.