Food on the Table

Do you know someone who doesn’t like to eat his or her vegetables?  Not that you want to pull one over on them, but this thick, rich, hearty and satisfying sauce sneaks quite a bit of nutrition into those picky eaters.

Hidden Vegetable Pasta

Details

• Difficulty: Easy
• Serves: 4-6
• Prep Time: 10 minutes
• Cook Time: 50 minutes

Ingredients

• 2 Tbsp olive oil
• 1/2 medium onion, finely chopped
• 1 small carrot or 1/2 large carrot, finely chopped
• 1 small stalk of celery, including the green tops,  finely chopped
• 1 acorn squash, baked and mashed
• 1/2 cup spinach, chopped and steamed
• 2 clove garlic, minced
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1/2 teaspoon dried basil or 2 Tbsp chopped fresh basil
• 1 28 oz. can whole tomatoes, including the juice, or 1 3/4 pound of fresh tomatoes, peeled, seeded, and chopped
• 1 tablespoon tomato paste
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
• 1 lb (dry weight) spaghetti or other pasta of your choice

Instructions

1. Heat your oven to 350 degrees. Cut the acorn squash in half and place on a cookie sheet with a small amount of water in the pan. Bake while the sauce is cooking until soft, about 30 minutes. Cool enough to scrape all of the squash out of its shell and mash, seasoning with a little salt, pepper and half of the dried oregano.
2. Steam fresh spinach until tender, or if you are using frozen chopped spinach, heat it according to the package directions.
3. Heat olive oil in large skillet over medium heat.  Add the carrot, onion and celery and cook until onions are translucent but not browned and the carrot and celery are soft, about 5 minutes.
4. Add garlic and sauté for 30 seconds until garlic becomes aromatic, being careful not to burn it.
5. Add the tomato paste and cook until it darkens slightly and sweetens, about 2 minutes. Add all the rest of the ingredients (except the pasta, the squash and the spinach), bring to a boil and then lower the temperature, simmering until the flavors begin to blend and mellow, at least 15 minutes.
6. Cook pasta according to package directions, then drain in colander and set aside.
7. Mash the baked squash and add it to the sauce, along with the spinach and use either a food mill, an immersion blender, or allow the sauce to cool enough to put into a food processor or blender.
8. Bring sauce back up to a simmer, allowing the rest of the flavors to blend together. Serve over pasta.

Tips, Tricks and Tweaks

• The texture is essential when you’re hiding veggies. You can leave a little chunkiness from the tomato if you think you can get away with it, but a smooth texture goes a long way towards saying ‘there are no veggies here!’
• This sauce is not only easy; you can double the recipe and freeze it. It works great on pizza as well! Using low-fat cheese and a high fiber crust, you can even make pizza into health food. (I suggest turkey pepperoni for those hard cases that don’t think it’s a pizza without some disk of meat on it… it’s much lower in fat and the taste is exactly the same.
• The squash makes the sauce a little sweeter; the spinach takes it back down. Play with the amounts and balance it to suit your taste. I add a little red wine to mine right as I add the tomatoes to make the flavor a bit richer as the alcohol cooks out entirely when you bring it up to the boil and through the long simmer.
• You can add seared ground beef to bring in some protein.

Related posts:

1. Easy Garlic Shrimp Pasta
2. Hidden Veggie Mac & Cheese
3. Healthy and Freezer Friendly: Vegetarian Chili