Lentils bolognese pasta
The monks on Mount Athos do not eat meat at all and very often replace it with nutritious legumes. In fact, many times the monks who minister the art of cooking become very resourceful in order to lighten the burden of fasting. See below on of these creative monastic recipes with the hamble lentil as a key ingredient. A fasting and vegetarian version of the classic Bolognese in which the minced meat has been replaced by lentils and vegetables. A meal that with the combination of legumes and pasta is a source of complete protein and iron.
We boil the lentils at a very low temperature for about 20 minutes, until they start to soften, but without overcooking them.
We put the olive oil in a pot and frizzle the carrots that are harder first.
Then, we add the celery, onions and garlic and continue frizzle.
Then, we successively pour the tomato paste, the chopped tomatoes and about half a cup of water into the pot. The amount of water depends on how much liquids they will take out the vegetables.
We season with salt and pepper, correct the acidity with a little sugar if necessary and let the sauce boil for 10 minutes until the carrots are soft.
Then, we add the boiled lentils, oregano, parsley and let the food come to a final boil.
If necessary, we correct the salt and liquids.
At the same time, we boil the pasta in a well-salted water, according to the instructions of the package. We drain them and then we scald them with good olive oil.
We serve with some chopped parsley and green onion.
The initial cooking time of lentils depends on the legume itself.
If at the end our sauce has more liquid, we can take some of its juice, "tie" it with some corn flour and put it back in the pot.
We can boil more lentils than we need for the pasta and make this sauce with the rest.
The lentil mince is also preserved in the freezer, so if we want, we can make double the amount and next time just boil the spaghetti.
We can use the lentil mince in pastitsio and mousaka.
