The Vegetarian Pasta I First Learned To Make 14 Years Ago

There's one pasta recipe that I suddenly remembered recently and just could not stop thinking about — most probably because I couldn't immediately make it, as unfortunately some of the main ingredients are not sold in the local supermarket here. With district borders closed off due to the ongoing lockdown, I couldn't just head to my favourite supermarkets one hour away to stock up.

When district borders opened up again last weekend I immediately wrote down "basil" and "marjoram" on my list and now here we are talking about "Funky Spaghetti", a vegetarian pasta recipe I watched Jamie Oliver made on a rerun episode of The Oprah Show in my student studio apartment's living room 14 years ago, in Christchurch.

Seriously, this pasta is SO easy to — you know I'm a real sucker for easy recipes! I mean, no cooking aside from boiling the spaghetti? Count. Me. IN. 

All that needs to be done is mix these ingredients in a bowl: halved cherry tomatoes (red and yellow for extra colours!), basil leaves, marjoram leaves, minced garlic cloves, extra virgin olive oil, salt, pepper, and lemon juice (which I substitute in place of red wine vinegar in the original recipe). Use hands to mush the cherry tomatoes so the juice spills out, and sort of mash all the ingredients together. Then throw in the cooked pasta, stir them around a little, and that is literally it — the pasta is DONE-zel Washington!

I no longer rely on the recipe for the amount of veggies and herbs to add, but rather eyeball them according to how vegetable-loving I feel that day (which is usually very much); I could easily digest 20 halved cherry tomatoes in one go! But you're more than welcomed to test out the recipe as is for your first time whipping it up.

Check out the recipe here: Funky Spaghetti

Have fun trying this recipe out! Until my next post ❤