NATURAL HEAVEN ANGEL HAIR PRIMAVERA - By Chef Nicola
This Natural Heaven pasta dish is a wonderful way to avoid carbs while also getting your favorite way to eat fresh, tasty, seasonal veggies in the springtime. We love to include asparagus in this meal, as it’s a vegetable that is so rarely paired with a tomato-based sauce.
If you want to boost this meal at all, we can heartily recommend making your own tomato sauce. Whether you make it specifically for this meal, or you make a batch in advance and freeze it, we’re sure you’ll notice the difference in taste from your go-to jarred sauce.
You could also sprinkle a little parmesan cheese on top of this dish when you plate it - it would bring out the flavors of the dish wonderfully.
Ingredients
- 3 cups of Natural Heaven angel hair pasta
- 2 cups of tomato pasta sauce
- Either jarred or homemade will work fine.
- 1 cup of mixed diced vegetables
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- Parsley, or basil - for garnish
Method
- First of all, we’d recommend getting the Natural Heaven pasta out of the packet that it’s in, and rinsing it in a strainer in the sink. Thereafter, allow it to sit in the strainer as you cook - this is a great way to ensure that it will not be stuck together when you add it to your dish.
- Secondly, prepare the diced vegetables. It’s completely up to you what vegetables you use and how you prepare them, but we would recommend using springtime veggies, as that’s what ‘primavera’ means. Therefore, options like asparagus and green beans are great. Simply rinse them, and then slice them into bite-sized pieces.
- In a medium-sized skillet, heat the olive oil to medium-low heat. You’ll know the olive oil is hot when it is lightly simmering in the pan.
- When the oil is hot, add in the diced vegetables that you prepared before. They’ll sizzle as soon as they hit the oil - make sure to move them around the pan as you cook, as they can start to burn otherwise. Don’t be afraid for the veggies to directly touch the metal of the pan without oil - you’re sauteing, not frying. As they cook, add a little salt and pepper, to taste.
- When the vegetables have a little color to them, add the tomato sauce that you’re using. This will likely take a few moments to heat up properly, so make sure to stir it well so that the sauce coats all of your other ingredients as it heats. This will lead to better flavor distribution in your final dish.
- Allow the sauce to come to a gentle, bubbling simmer. This is a great way to allow the sauce to thicken a little before you serve it - excess water will boil off, in the form of steam.
- When the sauce has thickened, add the Natural heaven angel hair pasta, and toss it with the sauce to ensure it is well coated. Make sure that every single noodle has a good coating of pasta sauce.
- Finally, serve the meal up, and garnish with some fresh parsley or basil - whichever you might prefer will work brilliantly.