Go Back
Oil free pasta with sauce, tomatoes, spinach and a fork on a colorful plate.

Not Your Nonna's Pasta

A flavorful oil-free pasta that you grandmother will approve of.
Print Recipe Pin Recipe
Course Main Course
Servings 4

Ingredients
  

Main Pasta:

  • 6 cups vegetable broth preferably homemade, or if commercial, go for low sodium
  • 1/4 cup tomato paste
  • pinch saffron threads if desired
  • 1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
  • 1/2 teaspoon fennel seeds
  • 8 ounces pasta preferably whole grain
  • 4 tablespoons nutritional yeast
  • sea salt and freshly ground pepper

Vegetable Additions:

  • 2 cups spinach or arugula chopped
  • 1 cup tomatoes chopped
  • 1 cup roasted red pepeprs chopped
  • 1 cup artichoke hearts chopped
  • 1/3 cup olives green or ripe
  • a few sprigs of basil or rosemary
  • 1 cup chickpeas or white beans
  • 1 cup peas

Instructions
 

  • In a large pot, bring vegetable broth to boil over high heat. Add tomato paste and stir in to combine. Add saffron, if using, red pepper flakes and fennel.
  • With the broth still on the boil, add your pasta. Cook just until al dente. That means to the tooth, people. The pasta should yield when you bite it.
  • Drain pasta into a colander with a bowl beneath to save the sauce.
  • You’ll see the pasta will have drunk up quite a bit of the broth and the broth will be thickened from the pasta. Cool.
  • Pour pasta into a large bowl. Sprinkle in nutritional yeast and toss to combine.
  • Add some of the sauce back into the pasta bowl, 1/2 cup at a time, where it will continue to absorb into the pasta.
  • You can finish with some sea salt and pepper and enjoy like this, or add the vegetable ingredients.
  • Toss what you like in with the pasta and add the sauce back in half-cup increments until you have the pasta of your dreams. Your nonna will understand.

Notes

  • I used whole grain spaghetti, but the method works for any shape or kind of pasta.
  • If you’re using commercial vegetable broth, go for low sodium. 
  • This recipe is basic and very flexible, inviting all kinds of vegetables and other adds*.
  • If you’re using broccoli or cauliflower florets, add them in with the pasta, so they cook at the same time.
  • Less is more.  Cook pasta until just al dente — to the tooth. 
  • Reserve the cooking water/sauce. You’ll need it a second time. This is a double sauce, remember?
Keyword oil-free pasta, pasta, world pasta