Simply spaghetti

Kalyn's Weekend Herb Blogging travels to Germany this week, to be hosted by Claudia from Fool for Food. I only wish my grasp of the German language extended beyond "dunkeshein" , "guten tag" and "gesundheit", so I could enjoy some of her wonderful looking recipes.

Spaghetti marinara is my chosen dish this week, and apart from the obvious parsley sprinkled throughout, you're probably wondering what seafood and pasta have to do with blogging about herbs and vegetables. Well...the recipe called for a jar of roasted tomato, garlic and onion pasta sauce. I didn't have any, but I had lots of homegrown tomatoes, several garlic bulbs and of course onions. Roasting the tomatoes brings out their rich, sweet flavour, and of course roasted garlic is just the most delicious tastes I can ever imagine. Once roasted and caramelised, I blitzed them all together in the food processor. This made a thick, almost puree-like sauce, just perfect for adhering to the pasta and seafood mix. You could add some olive oil to make this paste more like the consistency of sauce, or even some tomato paste for extra colour and flavour.

Spaghetti Marinara

375 g dried spaghetti
2 tblsp Chilli oil
450 g fresh seafood marinara (or frozen but fresh is best)
737 g bottle of oven-roasted garlic, onion and tomato pasta sauce
1/2 cup of flat leaf parsley
Lemon wedges to serve
Garden salad to serve

Method

Cook pasta in plenty of salted boiling water until tender but still firm to the bite. Drain well and return to pan.
Meanwhile pre-heat a large non-stick frying pan over moderate heat, add chilli oil (you could use plain EVOO if chilli's don't agree with you). Add marinara mix, cook stirring for one minute. Remove from pan.
Add sauce to pan, bring to boil, add marinara mix and simmer, stirring for 3 minutes or until seafood is tender. Remove from heat, stir in parsley and season with salt and pepper.
Add marinara mixture to hot pasta. Toss lightly to combine. Serve with lemon wedges and a garden salad.