I'm Changing The Way I Cook, Starting With This Roasted "Dynamite" Linguine

Look Mum, no hands!

When I first started my blog, I was less of a chef and more of a… recipe translator.

It was my job, I had decided, to take as many non-vegan recipes as possible and make them vegan. Simple, rewarding and kinda therapeutic. Input = Carbonara, output = Vegan Carbonara. You get the idea.

I wrote a lot of great recipes this way, and hopefully helped a lot of people “reclaim” their former favourite dish from before they went vegan. I wrote recipes for homemade vegan chicken, made from vital wheat gluten, which one kind reviewer called “so convincing I couldn’t eat it”. I made recipes for vegan hard boiled eggs with buttery, golden yolks. I created probiotic cultured vegan butter and homemade vegan steaks, but let me ask you something. Were those recipes easy to make? Yyyeah not so much.

Were those recipes quick and convenient to cook after a long day at work? Errm, define quick…? Were those recipes made with simple supermarket ingredients that most people already have tucked away in their fridge? No, ok. No they were not!

But as time has gone on, I’ve not only changed the way I cook as a blogger, but also how I cook as a normal human being who just wants to get on the couch and watch White Lotus (what IS going on with those brothers?? No spoiliers pls). I don’t always have the time (or inclination) to batch-cook twelve kilos of seitan on a Wednesday night, and guess what? It turns out, neither do you!

I posted the note above last week and was blown away by how many of you really need help with wholesome, easy, mid-week dinners. Not polished and preened instagram recipe videos for homemade pistachio madeleines that you’ll probably never make. It turns out you want simple school night recipes that are easy to throw together at the end of a busy day.

And honestly, this is great news. As someone who cooks literally all day for their job, I’ve figured out a lot of little hacks and tricks to help get a big nourishing dinner on the table in no time. So, if you’ll let me, I’d like to dedicate more time in this newsletter to sharing these with you. Starting right now, with this recipe.

I call this recipe Roasted “Dynamite” Linguine, because:

a. It’s the bomb
b. It’s a little fiery
c. It’s exploding with flavour
d. It’s the kind of dinner where you just light the fuse and then run away

The idea is this: in the name of convenience, you make the entire dish in a roasting tray. No need to pre-boil the pasta, no need to fry off the onions, everything just gets cooked together in the oven. Even the pasta is literally roasted 😍.

The ingredients are perfect for creating a spicy, glossy sauce that coats just perfectly while the high heat results in a pasta texture inspired by spaghetti all'assassina (where the pasta is deliberately slightly scorched in order to give it a variation in texture).

It’s also conveniently customisable, so if you don’t have all the ingredients, don’t fret. I’ve put some suggested swaps and substitutions at the bottom, under the recipe.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy this recipe and that it makes it into your weekly rotation occasionally. This week’s newsletter and recipe are completely free, no paid subscription required, to thank you for being here. It honestly means so much. If you’re in a position to return the favour, you can upgrade to a paid subscription here. Paid subs help me to keep School Night Vegan going, and to keep this newsletter active and packed with groundbreaking culinary innovation (lol, ok Heston Blumenthal)!

OK, here’s your recipe - love you loads!

Richard xx

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Roasted “Dynamite” Linguine

Onion, garlic and tomatoes roasted until sweet and sticky, then tossed with gochujang and chilli flakes for a fiery kick — all cooked in one pan for ultimate ease.

Ingredients
2 large brown onions, peeled and sliced into ½ cm wedges (about 2 large yellow onions, sliced into ¼ inch wedges)
100g (about ½ cup) sun-dried tomatoes, finely chopped
200g (about 1½ cups) cherry tomatoes
1 tbsp gochujang paste
1 tsp chilli flakes (use Aleppo or gochugaru if you prefer less heat)
1 tbsp olive oil
Pinch of flaky sea salt
Ground black pepper
1 whole bulb of garlic
300g (10.5 oz) linguine
650ml (2¾ cups) boiling water

Method

Preheat the oven to 200°C/390f.

Add the onions, sun-dried tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, gochujang paste, chilli flakes, olive oil, flaky sea salt and black pepper to a large roasting tin. Use your hands to gently massage everything together until well coated.

Slice the bulb of garlic in half widthways and place it in the centre of the tin. Roast for 25 minutes.

Remove from the oven and lift out the garlic. Carefully squeeze the cloves into the roasting tin (use a fork to remove the cloves if too hot) and use a fork to mash them into the mixture. Stir everything together.

Add the linguine and pour over the boiling water. Return to the oven for 20 minutes, stirring to separate the linguine after 10 minutes.

Remove from the oven and serve hot.

Subs and Swaps

• Brown onions → Yellow onions, red onions or shallots

• Sun-dried tomatoes → Semi-dried tomatoes or finely chopped roasted red peppers

• Cherry tomatoes → Grape tomatoes or 2 medium tomatoes, chopped

• Gochujang paste → Harissa paste or sambal oelek (use slightly less and adjust to taste)

• Chilli flakes → Aleppo pepper or gochugaru (for less heat)

• Olive oil → Avocado oil, rapeseed oil or any neutral oil

• Linguine → Spaghetti or fettuccine

For added protein, use the large holes of a box grater to shred in around 200g of extra firm tofu or smoked tempeh. Add at the start with the veggies, to give it time to soak up flavour. You’ll need to increase the boiling water quantity by a quarter if adding this step.

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