I’m a little late in posting the first recipe this week, after having a fairly big weekend.  We had our presentation night for hockey on Saturday night and, not only did I have a couple of drinks, but won Best & Fairest for our team.  It was certainly a surprise on my behalf and had not even thought about a speech!  However, I think it’s made me reconsider my thoughts of not playing on.

Moving on to the recipe…  This one is something I used to love as a meat eater and wanted to come up with a vegetarian version.  This came after ordering some meat subsitutes from veganperfection.com.au including the Cheatin’ Beef-Style Roast.  The roast was cooked the day before and the next day I used it for this recipe, tearing up into beef chunks.

Spezzatino is rich in flavour and is generally eaten as a casserole, but a few restaurants combine it with pasta for a chunky beef pasta.  This vegetarian / vegan version certainly is a great alternative and I’ll definitely be making this a regular in my kitchen.

Makes:

• 3 plates

Ingredients:

• 1/4 onion, diced
• 2 tsp garlic mince
• 2 tbs olive oil
• 1/4 cup dry red wine
• 1 can tomatoes, peeled and mashed
• salt
• white pepper
• 0.5 package of cheatin beef-style roast, torn into bite-size pieces (cooked using instructions on pack)
• 1 tab porcini stock
• 1 tbs capsicum paste
• 3 serves fresh pasta, cooked and set aside

Instructions:

1. Brown the onion with the olive oil.
2. Mix in your garlic, capsicum paste and brown the beef pieces.
3. Add the stock, wine, tomato and seasoning.  Simmer for 30 minutes on the lowest setting.
4. Mix in the pasta and serve.