Fresh Tomato and Basil Pasta

This is such a wonderfully fresh pasta dish, best enjoyed in summer when tomatoes are particularly flavourful. It uses leek-greens instead of garlic or onion, as would be more traditional, but my Italian partner has given it the thumbs up, so I think it gets away with it! Buon appetito!

[Prep Time: 5 mins. Cook Time: 20 mins. Total Time = 25 Minutes]

Serves one - multiply as needed.

INGREDIENTS

70g Gluten-Free Pasta* - I used Rummo linguine

1 tsp olive oil

2 leaves of leek, dark green section only

3 medium common tomatoes

Salt and pepper, to taste

¼ cup tinned lentils

¼ cup olives, diced (any kind without garlic)

2tbsp pumpkin seeds, toasted

1 handful fresh basil, chopped

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Check the pasta’s instructions and put it on the cook, keeping in mind that the sauce will be ready in about 20 minutes.

2. Finely slice the dark green leak leaves and fry in a pan with the olive oil, for 5 minutes on a medium heat.

3. Meanwhile, roughly chop the tomatoes and pop them in a blender. Blend until it looks like a strawberry smoothie!

4. Pour the blended tomatoes into the pan with the leek and add a good pinch of salt and pepper.

5. Turn up the heat and simmer until the sauce turns a deeper red and the water begins evaporating off; roughly 10 minutes.

6. Stir the lentils and olives into the sauce and heat for another 5 minutes.

7. When you are ready to serve, put the cooked pasta* into the sauce, stir it through and then stir through the chopped basil and toasted pumpkin seeds.

*Note, one cup of cooked gluten-free pasta is low FODMAP according to Monash University, so the 70g of dry pasta is an estimate for this.

The recipe is featured in this video.