Halloween is around the corner so let’s scare the kids with this hidden vegetable pasta! Oh yes, lots of vegetables hidden in a pasta sauce, any child would be scared if they knew what was in it…! To add to the fun, I’m plating the dish with a monster face… scary stuff! Made with tiny coquillettes pasta shapes from Le Moulin, perfect for little monster mouths…
Made with Le Moulin pasta from Luxembourg as part of our collaboration.
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250g Le Moulin Coquillettes
For the sauce:
1 onion
2 garlic cloves
1 fennel bulb
1 carrot
1 red pepper
1 zucchini
2 tbsp olive oil
½ tsp fennel seeds
1 tbsp oregano
2 tbsp tomato paste
400ml chopped tinned tomatoes
1 tsp sugar
250ml chicken or vegetable stock
A handful of basil
Salt and pepper
For the monster elements:
2-4 slices of cheese
2-4 black olives
A bit of ketchup
Serves 4 kids or 2 adults – Makes enough sauce for 8 portions
Start by prepping the vegetables: Peel and finely chop the onion. Peel and crush the garlic cloves. Trim the fennel and cut into 2cm pieces. Peel and grate the carrot. Deseed the pepper and cut into 2cm pieces. Trim the courgette and cut into 2cm pieces.
Heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a heavy-bottomed saucepan and fry the onion with a pinch of salt for 3 minutes. Add the garlic, fennel seeds and oregano and fry for another minute.
Add all the vegetables fry for 5 minutes, so that the vegetables sweat.
Add the tomato paste, tinned tomatoes, sugar and stock. Season with salt and pepper, stir and cover with a lid. Cook on a medium heat for 30 minutes, stirring from time to time.
After 30 minutes, take the sauce off the hob, add a handful of basil leaves and blend with a hand blender until smooth. Adjust the seasoning with salt and pepper and set aside.
Cook the pasta in salted boiling water for 5 minutes. Drain and mix with enough sauce.
Distribute the pasta between 2-4 plates, and cut out eyes and teeth from the cheese slices. Slice the olives to make the eyes. Place the eyes and teeth onto the pasta and add a few dollops of ketchup to make the blood.
