You can make this flavour-packed spaghetti dish ahead of time - without it clumping together. Full of veg, plus crispy bacon. Just reheat for a quick dinner. Freezable too!
Course Dinner
Cuisine Italian
Keyword Any Time Of the year, Family Dinner, make ahead
Cook the spaghetti in a pan of boiling water for 2 minutes less than the suggested cooking time (I cook mine for 9 minutes). Drain the pasta (whilst reserving the pasta water) and rinse thoroughly with cold water. This will stop the cooking process and will stop the spaghetti sticking together. Put to one side.
250 g (8.8 oz) dry spaghetti
Heat half the the oil in a large frying pan and fry the mushrooms until browned. Place the mushrooms in a bowl and heat the rest of the oil. Add the bacon and cook until crisp. Take the bacon out of the pan and place in the bowl with the mushrooms. Then chop the bacon into small pieces with a pair scissors.
Place the onions in the pan (there should still be some oil in there from cooking the bacon) and cook on a low-medium heat for 5-6 minutes until softened.
1 large onion
Add the peppers, celery, spring onions, chopped chilli and garlic to the onions and cook for a further 2-3 minutes, then stir in the tomato puree and crumble on the stock cube.
1 yellow pepper, 1 red pepper, 2 sticks celery, 3 spring onions, 1 red chilli, 3 cloves of garlic, 4 tbsp tomato puree/paste, 1 chicken or vegetable stock cube
Add the red wine and let the wine bubble for 5 minutes. Add the canned tomatoes, worcestershire sauce, oregano, thyme, sugar, salt and pepper. Bring the sauce to a gentle bubble and let simmer for 10 minutes.
120 ml (½ cup) red wine, 1 can chopped tomatoes in juice, ½ tbsp Worcestershire sauce, 1 tsp dried oregano, ½ tsp dried thyme, 1 tsp sugar, pinch of salt and pepper
After 10 minutes, turn off the heat and stir in the spaghetti and bacon. At this point you can heat through (add a splash of the leftover pasta water if it needs more liquid) and serve straight away, or you can leave to cool, then cover and refrigerate*. Heat it up later with a cup of the leftover pasta water. You can leave for anything from 30 minutes to one day. I find that the flavour develops if you leave it for longer.
Serve topped with grated parmesan and chopped spring onions and some sliced chillies if you like.
grated parmesan, chopped spring onions, sliced chillies
Notes
*Once cool you can even freeze this dish in individual portions – without it sticking together. Defrost, add a splash of water and reheat in a microwave or pan until piping hot..Nutritional Information is per serving.