This is a very nice, thick sauce.  It has a meat taste, without the meat.  Nice and hearty, great with a crusty bread on a cold, Fall day.

Sicilian Lentil Pasta Sauce

olive oil

onion

mushrooms

zucchini,

garlic,

dry lentils

water

tomato sauce

tomato paste

white sugar

In a large saucepan, heat oil over medium heat.  Add onions, mushrooms, zucchini, and garlic.  Cook and stir until tender, about 5 minutes.


Add lentils and 3 cups water to vegetables.  Bring to a rolling boil, stirring occasionally.  Reduce heat to low, cover, and cook 45 to 60 minutes.


Stir in tomato sauce, tomato paste, sugar, and 1/2 cup water.  Bring to a boil.  Reduce heat, cover, and simmer for 20 minutes.  If necessary, add more water to keep the sauce from sticking.  Be careful not to dilute; the sauce should be quite thick.


A nice alternative way to eat lentils. Heed this warning though: if you cook the lentils as long as this recipe suggests you will have soup. It only took 30 minutes for my sauce to thicken enough to be served over pasta.

This was fantastic! I'm giving it 5 stars even though I made a couple of changes to suit my tastes.  First, I used vegetable stock instead of water, and at first I thought that was a mistake because it started to smell "vegetable soupish", but in the end it worked.  I think water would have worked fine too.  I used crushed tomatoes in puree instead of sauce, and like others added the zucchini with the tomatoes as I didn't want it overcooked.  I omitted the sugar and added a grated carrot with the tomatoes - it does the same thing that sugar is meant to do, cut the acidity of the tomatoes, but you also get a bit more nutrition.  And I seasoned with oregano, basil, salt & pepper.  Start to finish, my sauce was done in just under an hour - lentils were tender at about 35 minutes and the sauce simmered for maybe another 20 or so.  It was very filling and delicious!  Will definitely make this again.  

Added fresh oregano and basil and black pepper to season; could have done with more though. Smelt great cooking! Will freeze the rest and probably eat as soup instead of pasta sauce. I used large chunky mushrooms and they held their shape and texture well. The recipe didn't say what kind of lentils to use; I used green which worked well. They cooked thoroughly but didn't disintegrate. Will make again. Update: increased to four stars because it's so yummy as a thick soup with wholemeal bread! Fantastic take-to-work microwave food.

I suggest adding the mushrooms and zucchini 10 minutes before serving so they do not become mushy and hold their shape

Mmmmm mmmmm good! I omitted the sugar and added a sprinkle of locatelli cheese to the top served with crusty french bread and we were in heaven.

This sauce was a little too sweet for me--maybe if I eliminated the sugar it would be good because I love all the other ingredients.

thick and tastes good but a little sweet for my taste. I would make it the same without the sugar.

I left out the sugar and the last bit of water intentionally and the garlic less intentionally and it was great. My toddler LOVED this so hence the 5 star stamp of approval. She is going through a fussy stage and usually doesn't really want to touch much of her dinner at night. She actually gobbled it all up! I suspect that this recipe could be quite easily converted to a crockpot recipe. If you cook it in a wok with gas it only takes about 30 minutes too.

Makes a hearty delicious vegan meal. Loved it!

sicilian lentil pasta sauce

Prep Time: 20 minutes

Cook Time: 1 hours, 20 minutes

Total: 1 hours, 40 minutes

Servings: 8

Cost: $2.51 /serving

Author : Jill

Ingredients

Instructions

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