Simple Tomato and Mushroom Pasta

This is now the first food post of 2016, following Wednesday's post on This Is Not A Book.  I'm going to start the year with a main course that I found on plant-based, dairy-free and gluten-free food blogger Deliciously Ella's website.  I've chosen to look at a Deliciously Ella recipe because I noticed that she has a book signing event in Leeds in just under two weeks at a Waterstones store which I think is near the Trinity Centre, so I might ask my dad to take me to Leeds with him on that day (I don't have lectures on Wednesdays and we won't have had groups assigned for our final project yet).  I'm a big pasta person, so this recipe for tomato and mushroom pasta sounds perfect.

Ingredients (serves 4)

300g of pasta (four 75g servings) - brown rice pasta is suggested
1 packet of cherry tomatoes (about 250g)
1.5 packets of chestnut mushrooms (350-400g)
1/2 a packet of spinach (about 100g)
5 cloves of garlic
3 heaped teaspoons of tomato puree
2 teaspoons of brown miso paste
1 teaspoon of chilli flakes
1 teaspoon of paprika
salt and pepper
1/2 a lemon (optional)

Instructions

1. Chop the tomatoes into quarters and the mushrooms into slices.  Put the pasta on to cook.
2. Peel the garlic and crush it into a pan with a glug of olive oil, salt and pepper. Let this heat for a few minutes until it’s bubbling.
3. Add in the tomatoes, mushrooms, chilli and paprika and let this cook for about five minutes, until it’s all soft.
4. At this point stir in the spinach, tomato puree and miso and let the spinach wilt.
5. Once the pasta has cooked and been drained, then stir the sauce into the pasta
6. Squeeze the lemon on top, if you’re using it, and add a little salt and lots of black pepper to finish.