Here's a pasta and sauce recipe without cheese. I've got a few more like that, but I just thought I'd remark on it here, as so often when served a vegetarian pasta dish in a restaurant, it comes either with cheese in it already or a wee bowl of the stuff on the side. There's actually no need for that at all, as it isn't difficult to make vegan pasta dishes bursting with flavour. So, let this recipe serve as an example of the kind of thing I'm referring to.
Capers add a concentrated savourty taste to any dish and I think they go particularly well with courgettes. Since they usually come preserved in salt, they make a handy reserve ingredient, too: great for winter when there's not much fresh veg about. Or when you arrive home at four in the morning after a couple of weeks travelling. I should also point out that this dish, providing you go easy on the olive oil (and you really don't need much) is fairly low-calorie.
The quantities given here are enough for three or four people.
Ingredients
350-400g pasta
300g courgettes
250g tomatoes
2 cloves of garlic
A small handful of pine nuts
A couple of teaspoons of capers
A pinch of dried rosemary and/or oregano
Olive oil
Salt
Heat a large pan of water with a little salt added, and when it starts boiling, add the pasta, turn down the heat and cover the pan. While the pasta is cooking, chop the courgettes into small pieces (about 1 cm squares or even smaller). Chop the tomatoes roughly and the garlic finely.
Fry the garlic and pine nuts for a minute, then add the chopped courgette and a little salt and cook for another three or four minutes. Add the capers, tomatoes and herbs, stir and turn off the heat.
When the pasta is ready, drain it and add to the courgette mixture. Stir and serve.
For a few more recipes on a similar theme, see courgette and red pepper pasta and pasta with courgette and pumpkin seeds .