Vegan Bacon Pasta

Ingredients:

TOMATO SAUCE

240 g Vincent vegan Streaky bacon, Chopped into 1cm strips

4 x 400 g tins of quality chopped tomatoes or plum tomatoes

2 tbsp olive oil

2 tsp Asafoetida powder

240 ml vegetable stock or water

3 tsp brown sugar

1-1¼ tsp sea salt

pepper, to taste

½ tsp hot chilli powder

large sprig of basil (optional)

handful of Kalamata olives

handful of chopped walnuts

1-2 tsp lemon zest

fresh parsley, to garnish

Cooking Instructions:

Cooked pasta of choice

Heat up olive oil in a large frying pan.

Throw in vegan bacon strips stir-fry it on low-medium heat until it cripy and becomes fragrant and add Asafoetida powder.

Chuck in tinned tomatoes. If using plum tomatoes squash them with a potato masher first before adding to the pan. Now add stock or water (I tend to rinse my tins out with it to get all the tomato goodness out), add 1 tsp of salt and chilli and simmer (without a lid) on a low heat for about 45-60 minutes giving it a good stir every 10-15 minutes. You want the tomatoes to break down fully and the sauce to thicken so that it coats your pasta nicely.

Towards the end of cooking time, add a large spring of fresh basil and submerge it in the sauce to release its beautiful aroma. Season the sauce with sugar (to neutralise citric acid used to preserve the tomatoes), pepper and more salt if needed. You can also add a bit more olive oil if you want it to be richer.

If you want your sauce to be smooth, transfer it into a blender and give it a good whiz. I usually skip this step as I don’t mind my sauce a little chunky.

Mix the sauce into freshly cooked pasta. Serve with a few olives and a sprinkle of wanuts, lemon zest and fresh parsley.