“Want the secret to eating well? Give your food a bit of sauce!” says London-based chef and writer Nina Parker, who today launches her third cookbook, Saucy. “I wanted to eat a more plant based diet, and I find the easiest, most delicious way of achieving this is to make punchy dressings, marinades and salsas to bring the food to life. This is where Saucy was born. This is everyday food for the flexitarian.” To celebrate the launch Nina shares her vegan roast pepper sauce with pangrattato pasta recipe for the perfect, warming comfort dish.
This sauce is a mix between a romesco sauce and an incredible pasta that I ate at my favourite London restaurant, Pophams. I love using up stale bread to make breadcrumbs and this compliments the pasta, adding in lots of texture. I usually like to sprinkle them on a Puglia-style broccoli pasta but I think this might be a better combination. This also can work well for a larger party as you can prep everything before!
Ingredients (Serves 2):
For the pangrattato:
- 3 handfuls stale bread
- 3 tbsp olive oil
- 1/4 tsp garlic powder
- Salt and pepper
For the roast pepper sauce:
- 440g red peppers (I use a mix of bell and romano), thinly sliced and deseeded
- 4 tbsp olive oil, plus 70ml extra virgin olive oil
- 2 banana shallots, sliced
- 3 garlic cloves, sliced
- 1.5 tsp ground paprika
- Few sprigs of thyme
- 100g cherry tomatoes, halved
- 1/2 tsp chilli powder
- Zest of 1 lemon and 3 tbsp lemon juice
- Salt and pepper
Method:
For the pangrattato, blend the stale bread to a rough consistency, leaving some chunky bits. Add to a baking tray and drizzle over the olive oil, salt and pepper. Mix everything around and place into a 190C degree oven for 4-5 minutes until crisped up and golden. Leave to cool and store in a jam jar.
For the sauce, preheat the oven to 190C degrees and line two baking trays with baking paper. Add the sliced peppers to one and season with 2 spoons of olive oil, salt and pepper. Then add the onions, thyme leaves, garlic and tomato halves to the other and season with another two spoons of olive oil, salt and pepper. Place both trays into the oven. Take out the garlic and thyme at 12 minutes and the onion at 20. Take out the tomatoes and peppers at 30 minutes. Scrape this into a blender along with 30ml of olive oil, paprika and cayenne pepper. Blend to a smooth consistency and scrape into a bowl. Add the remaining olive oil and check the seasoning, adding in the lemon juice. Serve with the pasta of your choice using some of the starchy water to loosen the sauce. Top with pangrattato!
Saucy is available to buy from today, November 18th 2020. In keeping with her commitment to support the planet, Nina will donate 5% of the sale price of each copy of “SAUCY” sold towards Treecelet, an environmental enterprise whose mission is to plant trees, restore wildlife habitats, and raise awareness about deforestation.