’Marry me’ recipes may have been all over TikTok a few months ago, but how many were developed by an NHS gastroenterologist with a vested interest in creating gut-friendly dishes? 

This pasta dish couldn’t be more simple, yet it’s bursting with flavour and nutrients. It’s a ‘no cook’ sauce; the combination of the sun-dried tomatoes, roasted peppers and pomegranate molasses creates a real intensity to the sauce, meaning that you just have to heat it through rather than faffing around with boiling and frying.

Plant-wise, you’ve got tomatoes (two ways), olives, peppers, chilli, garlic, rocket and lemon, but if you want to up the diversity points, Dr Ahmed recommends browning a chopped onion to form the base of the tomato sauce and adding a load of chopped herbs (eg dill, parsley and basil) to the final dish. 

• 250g spaghetti
• 175g sun-dried tomatoes and 2 tbsp of their oil
• 300g cherry tomatoes
• 75g pitted black olives
• 175g jarred peppers (ideally in light vinegar or brine)
• 1 tbsp pomegranate molasses
• 1 tsp red chilli flakes
• 2–3 garlic cloves (or 1 heaped tsp garlic paste)
• 1 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil, plus extra for drizzling
• 200g raw, shelled, de-veined prawns
• 2 tbsp grated Parmesan cheese (optional)
• Salt, to taste
• Rocket leaves dressed with lemon juice, to serve (optional) 

1. Boil a kettle full of water, then pour the boiling water into a large saucepan and place over a high heat. Add the spaghetti and a generous amount of salt and cook until al dente, according to the instructions on the packet. Drain the pasta, reserving a little pasta water.

2. Add the sun-dried tomatoes and some of the sun-dried tomato oil to a blender with the cherry tomatoes, black olives, roasted red peppers, pomegranate molasses, chilli flakes and garlic and top up with two ladles full of the pasta water. Blitz to a smooth purée.

3. Add the extra-virgin olive oil to the same pan that the pasta was cooked in and warm through the prawns for just a minute – you don’t want them to go chewy and tough. Pour the tomato sauce from the blender over the prawns and season with a little salt to taste.

4. Stir well, then add the pasta and stir again until the sauce has coated the pasta. Transfer to bowls and drizzle over some extra olive oil and Parmesan cheese (if using). Top with rocket and lemon juice.

The 20-Minute Gut Health Fix by Dr Saliha Mahmood Ahmed is published in hardback by Yellow Kite on 27 February

Images: Steven Joyce