Day Five: Black on Black, or Pasta 007

One of my core culinary problems in the coming days (or even months) will how to use up my stash of Beluga lentils, almost 1,5 kg in total. When doing the inventory, I found one bag in each cupboard. No idea how and why they ended up there - I why I haven’t used them before!

My son has decided he’s going to be a secret agent. One of the most important features of a secret agent is that they only wear black. Fine, I said. But how about they also only EAT black?

In this pasta dish I used black tagliatelle I had bought in October and meant to use at Halloween - but somehow forgot about the whole thing. For the sauce I managed to use 250g of my black lentil stash, so I’ve only got 1,2kg left. But seriously, this really tasted great, so I’ll definitely be doing this dish even when I won’t “have to”!

For 5-6 big portions you need:

• 1 medium-sized onion, chopped


• 1 medium-sized carrot, grated


• 3 garlic cloves, crushed


• 4 Tbsp olive oil


• 250g Beluga lentils, washed thoroughly and drained


• 30g tomato paste


• water or vegetable broth


• salt and pepper to taste


• a couple of drops of Liquid Smoke, if available


• 500g (black) tagliatelle


• Parmesan cheese (optional) and any herbs of your liking, to serve

Heat the oil in a large pan. Sauté the onions until they get translucent, then add carrot and onion, and sauté 2 minutes more. Then add lentils, water or broth to cover them, tomato paste, salt, pepper, and liquid smoke. Bring to the boil and let simmer over a low heat until the lentils are tender-ish (but note that black lentils don’t really get as soft as the other other lentil types, no matter how long you cook them), or about 35 minutes.

Serve with cooked (black) tagliatelle topped with grated Parmesan (if using) and some chopped herbs!