Tomato, pepper and okra sauce with penne and a dairy-free parmesan

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Gluten-free, Vegetarian, Vegan, Dairy-free, Soy-free

Most of us have a habit of cooking and eating the same dishes over and over again.
That’s what’s happened to me during my chemo. I was very excited when my chemo treatments have ended and ready to create new recipes as my side effect got reduced and digestion got back to normal.

So when it comes to trying a new recipe, there’s always a bit of hesitation, right?
We’ve all been there.

Now, do you like pasta? I just love it!
I used to eat it every single day when I lived in Italy. Sometimes even twice a day, and I still couldn’t get enough of it.
It’s so versatile. You can have it pretty much with any kind of sauce, and you can be sure it will taste good.

But when you have your pasta with the same sauce every single time, it gets a bit ‘dull’.
So, have you ever ever wondered what to do with those tomatoes and peppers sitting in your fridge and if there’s any new pasta sauce you can try?
Well, I have one just for you! 
Check this vegetarian whole grain pasta recipe. It might be a bit out of your comfort zone, but it’s tasty, it’s full of cancer-fighting plant chemicals, and it’s super simple and quick to make.
What’s not to like?

It makes a perfect lunch, it’s great for a picnic and can be reheated the day after as well.

My go-to pasta is usually spaghetti, but for this dish, I’ve chosen another favourite type of pasta: penne.

What is penne?

Penne is a short, tube-like type of pasta with ridges that have angled edges and resembles the end of a quill pen. It is one of the most well-known Italian pasta shapes.
Penne pasta is usually served with tomato or meat sauces, and it’s also very popular for pasta salads or baked casserole dishes.
I love to cook it al dente, just slightly undercooked, so that pasta is firm to the bite.
But you can cook it your preferred way, it’s completely up to you.

How do you cook this dish?

Trust me, it’s very straightforward to prepare.
And just as simple as chopping some vegetables, adding them gradually to the pan and boiling some pasta.
Yes, that’s how easy to make it is.

What are the Sauce ingredients, and what are their benefits:

I chose very powerful cancer-fighting vegetables for my sauce and made sure that every single ingredient that’s in the dish has its purpose. For this sauce, I picked:

Tomatoes

They are one of my favourite vegetables, even though, technically, tomatoes are fruit.
I love their beautiful colour and amazing taste, especially when they’re in season: nice, ripe and juicy.
Tomatoes have many health benefits, are rich in nutrients and have antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties.
Lycopene is one of many of their plant nutrients that protect against cancer. It’s a potent anti-cancer molecule that gives various fruit and vegetables their bright red colour.
The absorption of lycopene in our bodies increases with cooking. As a result, tomatoes cooked over low heat, especially when cooked with some extra virgin olive oil, provide more lycopene than when they’re fresh.
Read more about the benefits of tomatoes here.

Red bell peppers

There are many different types of peppers you can find on the market, and the bell peppers variety seems to be the easiest to find.
Peppers are full of nutrients and have been shown to have antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties.
I chose a red bell pepper for this recipe because just like tomatoes, it has a high lycopene content, among other plant chemicals.
Red pepper nor tomatoes in this recipe are not peeled on purpose as their peel is a source of lycopene.
Read more about the benefits of peppers here.

Garlic

Garlic is one of the oldest medicinal herbs with incredibly potent health benefits. It boosts up the body’s immunity, helps to regulate blood sugar levels and is widely used for its antimicrobial, antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties, just to name a few. 
One of the very powerful antitumour plant chemicals found in garlic is allicin.
Chopped, minced or crushed garlic releases more allicin than the whole clove so I always let it sit for around 10 minutes before eating or cooking it. If you leave it for any longer than that, it will however start losing its allicin levels.
Read more about the benefits of garlic here.

Banana shallot

Just as garlic, shallots and onions are members of allium vegetables and are beneficial and effective when fighting and preventing breast cancer.
They help improve immunity and are antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and associated with a lower risk of breast cancer.
I use a banana shallot in this recipe. If you cannot get hold of it, feel free to use any type of onion.
Read more about the benefits of onions here.

Cavolo nero 

Cavolo nero is such a popular ingredient in Italian cuisine.
It’s a cruciferous vegetable, closely related to kale, with very dark green leaves, and its name translates as black kale or black cabbage.
As its cousin kale, it goes well with any stews, soups and sauces. Or it can be cooked as a side dish and sautéed with some extra virgin olive oil and garlic.
It is packed with vitamins, minerals and has strong antioxidant properties.
One of many plant chemicals found in cavolo nero, lutein, is shown to have antitumour properties and reduces the risk of breast cancer.
Cavolo nero can be replaced in this recipe with kale, Swiss chard or spinach or any green leaves, as all of them are full of nutrients.

Okra

Also known as ladies fingers or gumbo, this vegetable is more and more available to buy.
I love the beautiful shape of the okra pod as it looks like a strange-looking little flower.
If you cook with okra for the first time, be aware that the pod becomes it’s quite slimy when you cut it. Worry not though, when it cooks with acidic foods like tomatoes, its slime goes away and thickens the sauce.
Okra is a source of antioxidants, minerals, vitamins and fibre.
Furthermore, recent studies have shown that its protein, called lectin, is linked with fighting and prevention of breast cancer.
If you cannot get hold of okra, you can leave it out, of course.

To make it dish even healthier, I used a gluten-free brown rice pasta that tastes, if I dare to say, even better than conventional wheat pasta and with a dairy-free parmesan that gives it a cheesy, savoury flavour.

This recipe is added to the ‘after the chemo treatments have ended’ category just because that is when I came across okra, and for that reason, I couldn’t monitor how easy this vegetable would be to digest during the chemo.

And here’s how you make it.