Ready in 20: How to make a zesty Italian veggie pasta meal, fast

Pasta absorbs flavours beautifully, delivering big taste with minimal time in the kitchen. Easy-to-prepare and cooked in 20 minutes, this Fiery Italian Vegetable Pasta dish combines pasta with colourful vegetables and spicy red chili pepper to create a zesty meal.

Preparation:  10 minutes
Cooking:  20 minutes
Serves 4

275 g (10 oz) pasta, such as shells, bows, spirals or tubes
1 onion
1 red chili pepper
2 cloves garlic
50 g (1/4 c) pitted black olives
6 sun-dried tomato halves
2 celery stalks
275 g (1 1/4 lbs) ripe plum tomatoes
45 ml (3 tbsp) olive oil
30 g (2 tbsp) chopped fresh parsley
Finely grated zest of 1 lemon
50 g (1/4 c) Parmesan, shaves

• Bring a large pot of water to a boil.  Then, add the pasta, return to a boil and stir once. Reduce heat and partly cover the pot. Boil for 12 minutes, or according to package directions, until pasta is tender but still firm to the bite. Drain the pasta in a colander

• Meanwhile, finely chop the onion, chili and garlic cloves. Halve the olives, quarter the sun-dried tomatoes and dice the celery. Chop the fresh plum tomatoes.

• Next, heat the olive oil in a pot and add the onion, chili, half of the garlic and the celery. Cook over high heat for five minutes, stirring frequently.

• Stir in the fresh tomatoes, sun-dried tomatoes and olives. Cook the sauce for three minutes and return the pasta to the pot. Toss together and season to taste.

• Mix the remaining chopped garlic with the parsley and lemon zest. Divide the pasta among four bowls and serve topped with the parsley mixture and shaved parmesan.

Alternatively,  add 1/4 cup of chopped anchovy fillets in olive oil with the tomatoes and reduce the oil for cooking the onion, chili,  garlic and celery mixture to 15 millilitres (one tablespoon). Or, instead of using chopped sun-dried tomatoes in this mealtime option, you can try sun-dried tomato paste.  Add 15 to 30 millilitres (one to two tablespoons) of paste in step 2, stirring it into the cooked onion mixture before adding the fresh tomatoes.

Whether this dish is piquant with a little heat or fiery in flavour depends on your choice of chili. A mild chili will give a gentle warmth to the pasta and vegetables, but if you like it spicy, use two hot chilis.

Each serving provides:

• 486 calories
•  18 g fat
• 5 g saturated fat
• 68 g carbohydrates
• 17 g protein
•  7 g fibre

A truly satisfying vegetarian option, try pairing this dish with a full-bodied white wine to bring out the meal's wonderfully warm flavours.  Buon appetito!