Tri-pepper, five-colour spaghetti

Remember, in this post, when I talked about the various 'niggles' that may haunt a dish? The things that can go wrong, the ideas you can't quite make, the recipes you somehow lose...

Dear readers, I have lost a recipe. Not a terribly complicated recipe, or even a very exciting one, but a combination of ingredients that turned pasta from simple to exciting. Lost might in fact be a little generous; I distinctly remember throwing the piece of paper out (!). I thought I had transferred my scribbled notes to a draft blog post, but it seems that happened in my imagination and not reality. 

I am really very sorry. 

On the plus side, I can remember most (perhaps all - who knows!) of the things that went into this dish. And, pasta dishes are pretty much a concept anyway. And, I'm sure you all adapt recipes to what you have to hand. 

Maybe we can pretend it isn't so bad.

What I can say is that this dish has a number of stand out features.

First, the obvious one: My spaghetti was green! I used a spirulina version of the beetroot pasta I fell in love with last year. If you know to look for it, there is a very faint spirulina taste, but it's barely there. Obviously green spaghetti isn't essential and this would be enjoyable with a regular variety too (or spinach, which is a bit easier to come by than spirulina).

Second: I roasted the peppers in this dish ahead of time. It makes all the difference to flavour, and I really recommend it despite the extra effort. As the title suggests, I also used a mix of pepper colours - red, orange and yellow.

Third: There are lots of vegetables. The five colours referred to in the title include the red, orange and yellow of the peppers, plus orange carrots; green broccoli and spaghetti; and the purple tones of red onion.

Fourth: I used sherry vinegar when roasting the peppers, and balsamic vinegar in the seasoning for the rest of the vegetables. There is hardly any 'sauce' to this recipe because the vegetables are so plentiful and the roast peppers so tender. In addition to vinegar, there was olive oil, a little maple syrup, a dash of salt, and some dried tarragon.

In those features, you pretty much have the recipe. I wish I could be more specific, but the truth is, I made this up as I went along and scribbled the notes as I went. Mr Bite and I both enjoyed the final result, but I am sure you could have an equally enjoyable dish with a little less sherry vinegar, or a little more tarragon, or by branching out to other herbs.

Experiment. Have fun. Embrace colour.

And I promise in my next food post, there will be a recipe.

What was your last lost recipe occasion? Please share...

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