À La Carte: Pasta is for lovers

Creamy tomato pasta, bolognese, vegetable lasagna + more 🍝

Hi friends,

Valentine’s Day falls on a Friday this year, which makes me slightly more excited about it than usual. Not that it makes any difference to you, but I kinda consider myself a romantic (insert *cringe* emoji?). Like, I just love love, ya know? As in, I watch “When Harry Met Sally” at least twice a year, and it’s not only because of the iconic sweaters.

When it comes to romance-worthy foods, I really feel pasta tops the charts. Maybe it’s because it’s Italian, and the trope of the googly-eyed couple sitting on a restaurant terrace on a cobble stone street in Rome with the red-checkered tablecloth is so deeply ingrained in our collective psyche?

Whatever it is, if you’re staying in to cook this Friday, pasta is a great way to go…

1. Creamy Tomato Pasta

The secret to the best creamy pasta sauce without dairy is raw cashews. When you soak them in boiling water, then blend them up into a smooth cream, the mixture acts very similar to heavy cream. This easy tomato sauce is basically vegan vodka sauce, and it works best with short tubular pastas like mezzi rigatoni or penne.

2. Tempeh Bolognese

In place of the traditional ground meat, this TNB reader favorite relies on crumbled tempeh and finely chopped mushrooms. The sauce works best with long, ribbon-like pastas like fettuccine and tagliatelle. (Avoid spaghetti - it’s too thin and not hefty enough to handle a “meaty” sauce.)

3. Dried Porcini Mushroom Pasta

Adding dried porcini mushrooms to my ingredient arsenal has been one of my best moves in the recent years. They are such an impactful way to add flavor to plant-based meals, and make *the best* creamy mushroom pasta. (Cashew cream makes an appearance here, too!)

4. Roasted Vegetable Lasagna

Lasagna does require a few more steps than the pastas above, but let the leftovers you’ll have for day two be your motivator. (Cashews are essential here, too, this time transforming into “ricotta”.)

5. Peanut Miso Noodles

OK, so this isn’t “pasta”, but I wanted to include an option outside of the Mediterranean flavor profile. Plus, this dish uses rice noodles, so it’s perfect for those avoiding gluten.

Planning to make one of these? Tell me how it goes in the comments section or tag me with your creation on Instagram.