Recipes
Pasta and lentils
Pasta and lentils is a poor dish, but for its goodness it is worthy of a King: here is the delicious recipe!
Pasta and lentils is a perfect dish to serve hot in the cold seasons. Instead of ditalini you can use any other type of small or medium sized pasta . In fact, in some areas broken spaghetti or maltagliati are used.
When you bring it to the table, you can garnish the dishes with a drizzle of raw extra virgin olive oil and freshly ground black pepper. If you don't like garlic in the preparation, leave it whole and remove it before adding the lentils. Are you ready to prepare this wonderful dish? So follow us into the kitchen, and let's get started right away !
Preparation
Pasta and lentils
Clean and finely chop the onion , carrot , garlic and celery , then cut the bacon into small cubes. If you want to give the pasta a stronger flavour, you can also choose to use bacon or omit this component to obtain a 100% vegetable dish.
Heat the vegetable broth and keep it warm (it should just simmer).
Pour the oil into a saucepan and place it on a medium heat then add the chopped vegetables and the rosemary sprig. Brown for a few minutes.
Add the diced bacon and, after 2 minutes, the lentils . Cover with the broth, add the tomato paste and let them cook for 30-40 minutes , adding broth if necessary. Warning: the cooking of lentils can vary greatly depending on their type, so check their consistency every now and then. Only when the lentils are cooked, add salt and pepper .
Add the ditalini and as much broth as is needed to cook them. After ten minutes they should be ready. You can, as you like, choose to enjoy a very dense or more soupy pasta and lentils. Let it rest for 3-4 minutes before serving, finishing with a drizzle of raw oil if desired.
Here is a short video of a recipe similar to ours (as you can see and as we mentioned, bacon is optional). Add chilli pepper only if you like it spicy, otherwise you can omit it. Easy, right?
To show you that lentils are not only good for New Year's Eve, we have also prepared a delicious pasta with lentil ragout .
Variants
If you prefer, you can use 2 cans of well-drained canned lentils to speed up the preparation. In this case, cook them for only 10 minutes before adding the pasta. Furthermore, instead of tomato paste you can use either 2 peeled tomatoes crushed with your hands or 100 ml of tomato puree.
Another substantial variant is obtained by adding two small diced potatoes during cooking together with the lentils. As for the pasta shape, we recommend the short soup ones: ditalini, but also conchigliette or mixed pasta .
Conservation
This dish, being wetter than a normal pasta dish, can be kept for a maximum of 2 days in the refrigerator, well covered in cling film. We recommend heating it in the microwave for a few minutes before enjoying it. We do not recommend freezing in the freezer.
Read also
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