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Home » Dinner » Main Dishes » Red Wine Pasta

Red Wine Pasta

Original Post: February 8, 2016 Updated: March 22, 2019 By Sarah Trenalone 10 Comments

This vegan Red Wine Pasta is perfect for wine lovers on a date night, and is ready start to finish in about 20 minutes.

This vegan Red Wine Pasta is perfect for wine lovers on a date night, and is ready start to finish in about 20 minutes.

This vegan Red Wine Pasta is perfect for wine lovers on a date night, and is ready start to finish in about 20 minutes.

Picture the following:  You have a date, you’re supposed to cook, and you only have about 20 minutes to get the food ready.  

What do you do?  Panic?  (Yes, of course.)  

Call for a restaurant reservation?  (Maybe.)  

However, there’s another option.  Are you ready for this?  You can make fancy pasta.  

That’s right– pasta that looks terribly impressive, but in reality only takes a few minutes longer to prepare than plain old spaghetti marinara.  This Red Wine Pasta is vegan, flavorful, and incredibly quick to prepare.

This vegan Red Wine Pasta is perfect for wine lovers on a date night, and is ready start to finish in about 20 minutes.

What Kind of Wine Should I Use?

Choose a wine that you like, since you’ll definitely taste the flavor, but it doesn’t have to be pricey.  I usually grab a Winking Owl wine from Aldi for this meal, and save my favorite wine to pour in a glass along with dinner.

Quick Tip: This pasta… tastes like wine.  Shocking, I know.  Fair warning- If you don’t care for wine, you probably won’t like the pasta!

How to Make Red Wine Pasta

Red Wine Pasta is incredibly simple to make.  You need spaghetti, a bottle of dry red wine,* some diced tomatoes, and a few capers.  To start, first, get a big pot of salted water ready.  Next, start prepping the sauce of tomatoes and… ahem.. wine, and let the wine simmer for a few minutes.

Toss your dried pasta into the salted water, cook it for just a few minutes, and then transfer it to the wine sauce and let it finish cooking there.  Toss it all together, and ‘ta da!’– you’ve got a fancy-schmancy pasta dinner.

Quick Tip: Avoid trying to cook the pasta from start to finish inside the wine sauce.  It won’t cook correctly, and the finished pasta will be clumpy and overly starchy.  No one wants that (especially not on date night!)

Pair your dinner with a cocktail, some chocolate truffles, and the rest of your date is up to you!

This vegan Red Wine Pasta is perfect for wine lovers on a date night, and is ready start to finish in about 20 minutes.

This vegan Red Wine Pasta is perfect for wine lovers on a date night, and is ready start to finish in about 20 minutes.
Print Recipe
5 from 2 votes

Red Wine Pasta

Gourmet Pasta for Date Night
Prep Time5 mins
Cook Time20 mins
Total Time25 mins
Course: Main Course
Cuisine: American
Servings: 4 people
Calories: 505kcal
Freezer Friendly?

No

Will It Keep?

No

Ingredients

  • 1 lb spaghetti or angel hair pasta
  • 1 TB olive oil
  • 1 leek, sliced (or sub 1 diced yellow onion)
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 4 garlic cloves, minced
  • 1 can diced tomatoes (28oz)
  • 1 750 ml bottle dry red wine
  • 1/2 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
  • 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper (optional)
  • ~ 1/4 cup capers
  • Optional Toppings: sliced kalamata olives, freshly grated Parmesan, goat cheese crumbles, vegan Parmesan

Instructions

  • Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil.
  • Meanwhile, in a large deep-sided pan or wok, sauté leeks and salt until softened on medium heat. Add garlic and stir (about 1 min). 
  • Add tomatoes, and allow to simmer 2-3 minutes.  Add the entire bottle of wine.  Bring mixture a boil over medium-high heat, then reduce heat to medium and stir constantly.
  • Add pasta to salted water, and cook for about 4 minutes, until pasta is al dente.  DO NOT DRAIN PASTA.  Instead, use a pasta ladle to take pasta out of water, shaking lightly to get rid of excess water, and set pasta into wine (being careful not to splash).  Do not drain pasta water.
  • Toss pasta into sauce, mixing until pasta has finished cooking and sauce is thoroughly incorporated.
    Note: Depending on the type of wine used, you may find that your pasta isn't as dark red as you would like.  If this happens, add a little tomato sauce to make it redder.
  • If your pasta seems too dry, ladle over some of the reserved pasta water, 1/4 cup at a time, until it looks creamy.
  • Add crushed red pepper, cayenne, capers and optional toppings.

Nutrition

Calories: 505kcal (25%) | Carbohydrates: 97g (32%) | Protein: 16g (32%) | Fat: 5g (8%) | Sodium: 181mg (8%) | Potassium: 691mg (20%) | Fiber: 6g (25%) | Sugar: 8g (9%) | Vitamin A: 730IU (15%) | Vitamin C: 22.7mg (28%) | Calcium: 106mg (11%) | Iron: 4mg (22%)
Tried this recipe?Mention @champagne.tastes on Instagram, or leave a comment + rating!

Recipe adapted from: Food.com

Filed Under: Main Dishes Tagged With: dairy-free, vegan, vegetarian

Previous Post: « Spiced Tomato Soup
Next Post: Spicy Hot Chocolate »

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. AvatarDebra C.

    January 29, 2017 at 10:24 pm

    How fun, what a great idea! Love that it’s quick and easy too – this would be perfect for Date Night!

    Reply
  2. AvatarJulie

    January 29, 2017 at 11:07 pm

    What an interesting idea! Never thought of doing that with red wine. Must try.

    Reply
  3. AvatarBoastful Food

    January 29, 2017 at 11:21 pm

    Fun idea for a date night! I bet the color and flavor are terrific in person:)

    Reply
  4. Avatarjayne

    January 30, 2017 at 1:34 am

    Love the flavours you have in this pasta! Especially the red wine as it goes with pasta so well

    Reply
  5. AvatarCindy Gordon

    January 30, 2017 at 2:59 am

    You had me at red wine! This looks delish and something that my husband would love! I think I’ll surprise him next week!

    Reply
    • champagne-tasteschampagne-tastes

      January 30, 2017 at 2:39 pm

      Let me know how it goes! Enjoy!

      Reply
  6. Avatarshelley

    February 3, 2017 at 11:42 am

    This will be so great for Valentine’s day! I <3 Aldi too.

    Reply
  7. AvatarMeg | Meg is Well

    February 3, 2017 at 12:07 pm

    A whole bottle of red wine?! I’m in. And then I can have a glass on the side too right? Sounds like a pretty awesome date night to me.

    Reply
    • champagne-tasteschampagne-tastes

      February 3, 2017 at 12:10 pm

      Totally- you can have the wine in the food AND with the food. Seems reasonable lol

      Reply
  8. AvatarSasha @ Eat Love Eat

    February 5, 2017 at 11:39 am

    What a cool idea!

    Reply

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