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I love lentils so when I came across this recipe – I quickly decided it was going to be our new recipe for the week.
You will need a crock pot for this recipe.
Fettuccine with Lentil Bolognese Sauce (taken from Fresh from the Vegetarian Slow Cooker recipe book) – serves 4
Ingredients
2 Tbl olive oil
1 small yellow onion, minced
1 small carrot, minced
1 celery rib, minced
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 cup dry white wine
One – 28 oz. can crushed tomatoes
1 cup dried brown lentils, picked over and rinsed
2 Tbl tomato paste dissolved in 1 cup hot water
Pinch of ground nutmeg
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 can white beans, drained and rinsed
1/4 cup milk or soy milk
1 pound fettuccine
1/2 tsp Liquid Smoke (I omitted)
2 Tbl minced fresh Italian parsley leaves
Freshly grated Parmesan cheese or soy Parmesan to serve
1. Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the onion, carrot, celery and garlic, cover, and cook until softened, about 10 minutes. Stir in the wine and simmer for 2 minutes.
Veggies Chopped
Cooked veggies
Cooked veggies with wine
2. Transfer the vegetable mixture to a 3 1/2 to 4 – quart slow cooker. Add the tomatoes, lentils, tomato paste mixture and nutmeg and season with salt and pepper. Cover and cook on Low for 6 hours. I started tasting for doneness around 5 hours.
3. While the lentil sauce is cooking, combine the beans and milk 
in a blender or food processor and blend until smooth. It was difficult in the blender and took a longer time – had to keep stopping to mix it back up and re-position – I would suggest the food processor and not the blender. Set aside.
4. When ready to serve, cook the pasta in a large pot of boiling salted water, stirring occasionally, until is is al dente, about 8 minutes. I used a spinach linguine and it only took 3 minutes to cook. Drain well.
Ready to add the bean mixture
5. Just prior to serving, stir the bean mixture, Liquid smoke (if using) and parsley into the sauce. (I did this step prior to cooking the pasta, so that the flavors could mix)Place the cooked pasta in a serving bowl, add the sauce, toss gently to combine, and serve immediately with the cheese.
Sauce is done
Mixed together
Served
This is definitely a keeper. Stella had TWO helpings, I could not believe it. I had put some of pasta aside just in case she did not like – amazed at how much she liked it! I think this recipe serves more like 6, unless you have people that have huge appetites. It did not even look like we made a dent in the bowl after having dinner and we will have leftover night at least twice this week instead of our normal 1. This would be an easy recipe to halve.
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This does look yummy and for us meat eaters, I think adding some ground meat would work just great….yeah for Stella!
This is a very substantial sauce – I would suggest trying it as is first, but if not I would cut the lentil amount in half and replace the other half with meat. Let me know how it works with meat.