Tagliatelle with Tomato and Walnut Sauce

This recipe was adapted from 'The Essential Vegetarian Cookbook'. It's an excellent cookbook full of simple, delicious vegetarian recipes - pictures included!

Total cooking time: 30 minutes
Serves 4-6 (unless you find it as delicious as we did - then it only serves 2)

4 ripe tomatoes
2 tablespoons oil
1 medium onion, finely chopped
2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley*
1 teaspoon red wine vinegar
1/4 cup walnuts, roughly chopped
500 g (1 lb) tagliatelle or pappardelle
4 tablespoons freshly grated Parmesan cheese

1. Place tomatoes in a bowl and cover with boiling water for about 2 minutes. Drain the water and allow the tomatoes to cool. Peel the skin down and discard. Chop the flesh of the tomato into roughly 1/4 inch pieces.

2. Heat half the oil in a large heavy-based pan. Cook the onion for 5 minutes over low heat, stirring regularly. Add the tomatoes, parsley, red wine vinegar and wine. Reduce the heat and simmer for roughly 20 minutes. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

3. Five minutes before the sauce is cooked, heat the remaining oil in a medium frying pan and add the walnuts. Stir over low heat for 5 minutes.

4. While the sauce is cooking, boil water for the pasta and cook until just tender. Drain and return to pan. Add the sauce to the pasta and toss to combine. Serve the pasta and the sauce topped with walnuts and sprinkled with Parmesan cheese

Notes & Variations
The recipe originally calls for 1 celery stick, finely chopped, and 1 medium carrot, grated. We chose to omit these ingredients.
You can also choose to substitute canned, store-bought pasta sauce in place of the ripe tomatoes to allow a much quicker sauce cooking time if you're in a rush - although you'll sacrifice flavor and nutrients. In our recipe, we used 2 ripe tomatoes and 1 & 1/4 cups of pasta sauce. If you choose this option, the sauce only needs to simmer for 10-15 minutes.

Nora and I give this recipe 5 stars. It was absolutely delicious and our plates looked just like the picture from the book. The roasted walnuts have a lot of flavor, and give this dish a 'meaty' taste and texture. It was super easy to make! Try adding other vegetables to the sauce for even more variations.

*Fresh Parsley is a vegetarian hero food. It contains 200mg of calcium and 9.4mg of Iron per 100g, and contains significant amounts of the nutrients which many vegetarian diets lack. Be generous with the parsley in this recipe. Your body and your taste buds won't regret it!

-Andrea