Penne Tricolore | Pasta | Easy Student Cooking

Penne Tricolore – sounds kind of fancy, doesn´t it? Something that will take you forever to make…

BUT – IT´S NOT! I just called this pasta dish “tricolore” because it incorporates the three colours on the Italian flag: red, white and green. Apart from that, the only thing that makes this dish fancy is its name!

Usually, you can buy packets of tricolore pasta in the shop, that contain red, green and yellow pasta, but I´m basing my colours off of the vegetables I use in this dish. Red pepper, white button mushrooms, and green spinach!

All you may have to buy for this Penne Tricolore meal are those three vegetables, all other ingredients should already be in your store cupboard! If not, then check out my list of student store cupboard essentials here!

This Penne Tricolore dish is a really easy recipe – perfect if you are a new student and simply trying to cook a meal for yourself for the first time! It´s really quick to make, it´s healthy and also extremely cheap! It´s an all-round dinner-winner!

The tomato and vegetable sauce for this Penne Tricolore dish can easily be made with double or triple the quantities. Remove some sauce from the frying pan before you add the pasta, and then keep it in the fridge for 1-2 days.
Then, the following day, all you need to do is cook the pasta and reheat the sauce!

This recipe makes a generous amount for 1 person.

For more easy student recipes, why not try this pizza baguette or spaghetti pesto with feta cheese recipe?

Penne Tricolore | Easy Student Cooking

Recipe

Ingredients (serves 1):

Recipe Tip: If you want to add a little kick to this dish, add some fresh chilli or chilli powder to the sauce!

• 75g penne pasta (white or wholegrain)
• 1 clove garlic, finely chopped
• ½ red pepper, diced
• 6 button mushrooms, diced
• 2 large handfuls of fresh baby leaf spinach
• 1 tbsp tomato purée
• 250ml passata (or a small tin of chopped tomatoes)
• dried herbs, salt and pepper for seasoning

Method:

1. Bring a pot of water to the boil to cook the pasta. Once boiling, add a small handful of sea salt, then add the pasta and cook as per the packet instructions (usually between 8-12 minutes).
2. In the meantime, set a frying pan over a medium heat and add a splash of olive oil. Once hot, start frying the peppers.
3. After 2 minutes, sprinkle over some dried herbs (I used rosemary) and add the mushroom to the pan.
4. Leave to cook for another 2-3 minutes before adding the garlic and tomato purée. Mix well, then add the spinach leaves. Give everything a stir and wait until the spinach starts to wilt.
5. Pour and stir in the passata and add a large spoonful of the pasta water to the frying pan. This will give the tomato sauce some extra flavour.
6. Leave the sauce to simmer over a medium heat for about 5 minutes. Taste, then season generously with salt and pepper.
7. Once cooked, drain the pasta in a colander. Then add to the tomato sauce, and mix well until fully coated in the sauce.
8. Pour into a large bowl and enjoy!