Make Spaghetti - Vegetarian Style

When I was a teenager this dish was the epitome of home cooking.  There was nothing on this planet better than Nanny's spaghetti.  I requested it every time we visited my grandparents.  It was a reward for the long drive, the twisting roads and the *shudder* 65 degree incline of the driveway to reach their mountain top hideaway.  That driveway still scares me into having nightmares before every trip, so having a warm, garlic infused delight for my taste buds was a darned good thing.

After a few years I had the idea that maybe I should learn to cook Nanny's spaghetti for myself.  Ahhhh, brilliant!  Just one problem - Nanny has never made spaghetti from a recipe so her instructions, "just add garlic until it looks right" and "cook it on the stove and you can smell when it's done" were frustrating.  I finally learned her 'recipe' by sitting on a stool in the kitchen and watching every movement with a hawk-like gaze, scribbling frantically in my notebook.

Then came the fateful day when I turned vegetarian.  But I couldn't give up Nanny's spaghetti and ended up altering the recipe.  It's still fantastic.  I still love it.  It's not exactly healthy, though, even if it is vegetarian!

Ingredients:

Olive oil
1 TB Minced garlic
1 onion, chopped
1 green pepper, chopped
1 pkg. Morningstar Farms Recipe Crumbles
1 TB Soy sauce
2 8 oz. cans Tomato Sauce
1/4 cup Chianti
2 TB Garlic powder
2 TB Basil
1 TB Oregano
3 TB Parsley
1/2 tsp Paprika
salt and pepper (to taste)
2 large tomatoes, chopped

1. Heat 1 1/2 TB Olive oil in a large stainless steel pan. Sautee minced garlic for 2 minutes.
2. Add chopped onions and green peppers to the pan, sautee on medium heat for 4 - 5 minutes.
3. Take the onions and peppers out of the pan and set aside.
4. Pour frozen Morningstar crumbles into the pan.  Add the soy sauce and another TB of olive oil.

5. Sautee the Morningstar Crumbles until thawed.
6. Put the onion and green peppers back into the pan with the crumbles along with 1 can of tomato sauce.
7. Mix together all of the spices and herbs in a bowl.  Add half of this mixture to the pan, stirring into the
    sauce.
8. Add the wine.
9. Simmer for 10 minutes on low heat, stirring frequently.

10. Add in the chopped tomatoes, 2nd can of tomato sauce and the rest of the herb mixture.

11. Simmer, again on low heat, for another 10 - 12 minutes.

Notes:

When cooking 'fake meat' remember not to overcook!  Most times it just needs to be heated through or thawed.

It's important to add oil to make up for the fat that is not present in soy meat products.  Nanny's original spaghetti sauce had a sheen to it from the fat in the ground beef.  If the sauce doesn't have that distinctive sheen to it I often add another 1-2 TB of Olive oil at the end.  Hence the maybe not so healthy part, lol.

Nanny used Worcestershire sauce but since it is not vegetarian, I use soy sauce instead.  When I have it available I use Ottogi steak sauce.

My style of cooking is to use whatever I have on hand.  If I have only dried herbs, that's what I use.  If I have fresh herbs already, I will use them.  Sometimes I use a mixture of the two - it just depends on what I have on hand.  In this particular version I used fresh Oregano but everything else was dried.

We prefer Dubliner cheese to go with our Spaghetti.  It has a similar texture and taste to Parmesan with a little more tang to it. Dubliner is what you see topping the dish above.

Nanny used to say that her Spaghetti sauce bore no resemblance to anything found in real Italian cooking.  Not knowing much about Italian cooking, I can't say.  But it is delightful, warming and comforting!