Rustic Pasta

When I think of pasta, I immediately think of Italian style dish and tomato sauce. But as I find new recipes and read new cookbooks, I find that pasta can be prepared in so many ways.

This unique recipe from The Kind Diet cookbook has pasta but also includes a lot of cabbage, onions and celery. At first I was skeptical about this recipe, soy sauce in pasta? do I really need to put a whole head of cabbage? Yes and yes. I like how the cabbage adds great texture and volume to the dish. After cooking, the cabbage will wilt down to more than half of it’s pre-cooked size.

Whenever I look at a pasta recipe, I usually want to add more vegetables than it is called for in the recipe. I like this recipe because Vegetables > Pasta.

Rustic Pasta

(Serves 4 to 6, from The Kind Diet Cookbook)

Ingredients:

• 1/4 pound pasta (you can choose long or short shape)
• 2 T olive oil
• 2 large onions, very thinly sliced
• 2 garlic cloves, finely chopped (I used more)
• 2 celery stalks, diced or thinly sliced on a diagonal
• 1/4 C low sodium soy sauce (or shoyu)
• 1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1 head green cabbage, thinly sliced
• 5-6 tablespoon marinara sauce

Bring a large pot of water to a boil for the pasta. Salt the water and add the pasta. Cook just until al dente. Drain the pasta well.

Heat the olive oil in a large skillet over high heat. Add the onions and cook for 7 minutes until softened. Then add the garlic and saute for 3 minutes longer. The onions should transparent and turning golden.

Add the celery to the skillet and saute for 3-4 minutes. Stir in the soy sauce, salt, garlic powder, then add the cabbage; saute for 4 minutes. Reduce the heat to a simmer and cook for 5 minutes longer.

Add the pasta to the skillet with the marinara sauce and toss together. Cook over medium-high heat for a few minutes and serve.

I served my pasta dish with garlic bread and salad. I added turkey meatballs to the pasta for the husband’s plate.

I’ve also made this recipe without the pasta and served it as a cabbage, onion, celery side dish.

You can see the other dishes I’ve made from this wonderful cookbook  –> Collard Greens, Sweet Potato Lentil Stew and Moroccan Couscous.

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