Linguine with Red Lentil Sauce

I am posting this veggie recipe at the suggestion of Eric (!). I have been experimenting with some vegetarian dishes recently and this one came out quite nicely. Though it has lentils (not one of Eric's favourite foodstuffs), it still got the carnivore's thumbs-up. It is just a ragu sauce but with red lentils instead of minced meat. Apparently this kind of dish was very popular in the poorer areas in Italy where meat was not always readily available.

I got the basic recipe from a lovely cookbook that Joe gave me called Pasta for all Seasons, adding only a few things of my own like fresh rosemary (just because our plant needed trimming) and some red wine (just because there was a half empty bottle lying around). I also added an onion as I would for a ragu. I'm sure you could also any kind of veggie you wanted, like courgette or mushrooms for example.

Linguine with Red Lentil Sauce

1 glug of olive oil
1 onion, diced
4 cloves of garlic, minced
2 carrots, diced
2 stalks of celery, diced
1 tablespoon tomato paste
1/2 cup of red wine
1 cup dried red lentils, rinsed
vegetable stock (I use a good bouillon)
ground black pepper
1 tablespoon fresh rosemary (or 1 tsp dried oregano or basil)
dried linguine

1. Heat up olive oil in a big saucepan.
2. Add the onion and garlic and fry for 2 mins.
3. Add the carrots and celery and fry for 5 mins.
4. Stir in the tomato paste and then add the red wine.
5. Add the red lentils and the herbs and then cover with vegetable stock.
6. Bring to boil and then simmer until the lentils are cooked, about 15-20 minutes.
7. While the lentil sauce is cooking cook the linguine in a large pot of salted water. Add a little of the cooking water to the sauce if it is too thick.
8. When pasta is al dente drain and put in pasta bowl. Top with sauce and serve immediately.

We had this with salad and some fried bread that Eric made. He rolled out some leftover pizza dough and cut into two pieces. Then he heated up a little olive oil in a pan and fried the dough until puffy and golden on both sides. A successful Team Eckamura effort!