Robust Tomato Spaghetti

Sometimes all a girl needs is a nice glass of red wine (it’s ok, I read in ‘Foods that Fight Cancer’ that all them antioxidants are good for me! Yay!), some trashy tellie and a heaping bowl of the richest, heartiest spaghetti to make her night complete.



Serves 4
Ingredients:

2 Tbls olive oil
½ brown onion, diced
3-4 garlic cloves, crushed
45gm tin anchovies, roughly chopped
1 tsp. Paprika
Fresh or dried chilli to taste (For dried, about ½ tsp)
1 carrot, grated
¼ capsicum, diced
½ cup red wine
1 x 425gm tin chopped tomatoes
½ cup fresh basil, roughly torn
Salt to taste (anchovies are naturally quite salty so make sure you taste, taste, taste as you go, so you don’t go overboard!).
400gm dried spaghetti
100gm parmesan, grated

How to:

1. Heat the olive oil in a large, deep pan over medium heat. Add the onion and cook for several minutes until opaque and becomes soft. Add the garlic and anchovies and cook to dissolve the anchovies, about 1 minute. Add the chilli and paprika and toast until fragrant, another minute. Add half the red wine and stir.
2. Add the grated carrot and capsicum and cook to soften. Add the tomatoes and the rest of the red wine and allow to simmer for 10 minutes or until sauce reaches desired consistency. If the sauce becomes too thick or dry, simply add some water. Add the fresh basil after 5 minutes and continue simmering.
3. Meanwhile bring a large pot of salted water to the boil. Prepare spaghetti following packet instructions. Drain.

To serve:

Divide the spaghetti between four bowls and do the same with the sauce. Top with parmesan and a few extra sprigs of fresh basil to garnish. Pour yourself a lovely glass of red, curl up on the couch and watch Gordon Ramsey yell at some folk. Enjoy!