A low-fat lacto-vegetarian pasta dish that's easy to make with the succulent flavours of roasted tomatoes and bell peppers, the green freshness of asparagus and a little kick of peperoncino. Perfect for occasions when you want a tasty dish that takes very little time and just as little cooking expertise.
Simple pleasures
This recipe for low-fat linguine with roasted tomatoes, peppers and asparagus is surprisingly creamy, something you wouldn't ordinarily expect in a low-fat dish. It's not a traditional dish from any specific region but a new recipe I knocked up in line my special post-operative diet. However, I would say that it is based on a few nods to Southern Italian cooking.
I'm cooking it with linguine, but it would work well with any longer "ribbon" pasta; tagliatelle, pappardelle or spaghetti, for example.
This version includes Calabrian peperoncino, basically because I love a spicy kick in almost anything. It's entirely optional if you're not wild about chilli flavours, though in the quantities in this recipe, it's rather a mild kick. I've already tested a version without it and it lacked for nothing. Just remember that if you are literally having to count the grams of fat in each meal—as I currently am—if you use the minced peperoncino in jars, most are preserved in quite a lot of olive oil and you'll need to factor in. Better to use the dried variety if you can.
I'm using a mix of "heritage" baby plum and cherry tomatoes varieties here. It's as much for aesthetic reasons as flavour. You can use any fresh baby plum and/or cherry tomatoes. But, it won't work with tinned tomatoes or large tomatoes.
There are a number of stages to this dish, mostly because it uses a preparation method that keeps the fat i.e. oil content very low. However, it's not complicated to cook.
Cooking this dish with these quantities and ingredients brings it in at just under 4g of fat per standard portion. However, you can reduce that to under 3g per portion by leaving of the parmesan (or pecorino romano). Again, I have cooked it in a version without the hard cheese and it worked perfectly well. Yep, maybe it lacked a little something, but it was still tastier than many low-fat dishes.
What isn't optional is that you need to use zero-fat quark. Forget whatever you've read about fat-free yoghurts or fromage frais: only someone unfamiliar with the particular properties of quark as an ingredient in cooked dishes would pretend they were reasonable alternatives. They're not.
Similarly, sautéing with so little oil, it's definitely best to grate the garlic and not slice it.
The portions here are for 2 diners, three if you prefer small portions. Scale proportionally.
Shopping list
for the low-fat linguine with roasted tomatoes, peppers and asparagus
Enough linguine per diner (approx. 90g per diner, dried)
1 tspn virgin olive oil
Approx. 150g fresh baby plum and/or cherry tomatoes
Approx. 100g fresh slender green asparagus (i.e. sprue)
4 tbspns 0% fat quark
1.5 tbspns parmesan (or pecorino romano) cheese, finely grated
1 large echalion shallot, finely chopped
1 large red bell pepper
½ tspn peperoncino chillies, minced or dried
½ tspn dried thyme
½ tspn dried parsely
½ tspn dried basil
2 dried bay leaves
2 tspns dried oregano
2 tspns ground black pepper
1 glass of white wine
Salt to taste
4 tbspns, cooked, peeled and preserved red peppers
for the salad
Approx. 60g rocket, washed
½ a cucumber, sliced
2 spring onions, finely chopped
1 tbspn white wine vinegar
1 tbspn soy sauce
1 tbspn lemon juice
freshly cracked black pepper
a pinch of dried sweet chilli flakes
Cooking method
Crush the bay leaves using a pestle and mortar. Add all the dry spices and mix together. NB: you can also add crushed, dried peperoncino to this mix if you want a dish with a little more kick
Wash and drain the tomatoes, slice in half and lay out in an ovenproof dish with the internal facet facing up. Sprinkle liberally with your mixed dried spices. Wash the bell pepper, cut into large segments—thirds or quarters—and lay out on a non-stick baking tray, internal sides facing upwards
Dry roast both of these in a preheated over at 225°C for approx. 20mins, turning halfway through. If the peppers appear at risk of blackening, dab a little of the white wine onto their surface using clean fingers. Once the peppers are roasted, allow to cool, then cut into fairly large cubes. NB you can cook the tomatoes, peppers and green asparagus some time before preparing the final pasta dish
Wash the asparagus and cut into fairly large pieces. Steam in a microwave steamer for 2mins on full power (900W) then allow to rest
Cook the pasta in salted boiling water until al dente. Drain and return to the still hot pot—removed from the heat—and cover. Mix the quark together with the grated parmesan in a small dish and ensure it has time to return to room temperature
In a large deep (ideally non-stick) frying pan with a lid, heat the virgin olive oil on a medium heat. Add the grated garlic as soon as the oil begins to warm. Once it turns golden, add the chopped shallots and the peperoncino, along with a generous sprinkling of your dried spice/herb mix. Because you are cooking with so little oil, you will need to stir almost constantly to prevent sticking. However, at some point, this will no longer be viable, possibly before the onions turn golden. Then, add a generous dash of white wine, more of the dried herb mix and sauté the onions until golden, adding additional white wine whenever the pan begins to become too dry
Add the roasted tomatoes and all their juices to the pan and stir. Add the remainder of the white wine and cook all the ingredients together for a further 5mins or so, adding a further generous sprinkling of the dry herb and spice mix
Add the chopped roasted red bell peppers and green asparagus and stir into the mix of juices and wine. Cook all of these together until the liquid in the pan is somewhat reduced, neither too watery, nor too dry
Add the cooked pasta to the pan. It's likely that it will have become a little "stuck together" as it's cooled. Using heat-proof tongs, gently turn the past within the juices: it will soon start to separate as it becomes coated in the juices in the pan. Mix the pasta and the vegetables and the pasta, gently, without crushing the vegetables
As soon is the pasta is evenly coated in juices and suitably hot, add the mixture of quark and grated parmesan to the centre of the pan. Start folding it in and remove from the heat to ensure the pasta doesn't over cook. Cover and allow the heat of the dish to melt the remainder of the cheese and quark while you prepare the salad
Plate and take to table
Alternatives
This is by default a lacto-vegetarian dish. But, it's very easy to turn vegan: simply don't add the quark and grated cheese in the final stage of the cooking. And, no, it's not any less delicious. It was actually the first iteration of this dish I created and it works very, very well.
However, if I were a vegan who didn't have to worry about keeping is an ultra-low fat dis—it would hardly push it into the realms of "high fat"—I would mix 2 tbspns of extra virgin olive oil into the drained pasta and stir in before covering and later cooking as per the recipe about.
Carnivores, the most obvious option would simply be to add lardons at the same stage as cooking the onions. Yes, I'm sure it would taste fantastic, but it will push the fat content notably higher.
Pairings
This recipe is literally too new for me to have any solid pairing experiences. So far I've experienced it with sparkling water with a slice of lemon, a workaday chianti and a passable barbera di Asti. All of these were good, but it needs more exploration. Suggestions on a postcard please...
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