Description
Wondering how to make creamy tomato pasta without cream? The secret to this luscious sauce is raw cashews.
Ingredients
Scale
- 1/2 cup raw cashews* (see note below)
- 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- 1 small or 1/2 medium yellow onion, finely diced
- 4 medium garlic cloves, minced
- 1/4 teaspoon chili flakes
- 1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt, plus more to taste
- One 15-ounce can tomato sauce*
- Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
- 2 tablespoons white miso*
- 1 pound short pasta, like rigatoni, penne, or fusilli
Instructions
- Place 1/2 cup cashews in a blender and add 1 cup boiling water. Soak for at least 30 minutes or up to a few hours.
- Meanwhile, bring a large pot of water to a boil for the pasta.
- Heat 2 tablespoons oil in a large skillet over medium-low heat. Add the onion, garlic, chili flakes, and salt, and cook until the onion is soft and translucent, 5 to 7 minutes. Be careful not to brown the onion.
- Add the tomato sauce and black pepper, cover with a lid, reduce the heat to low, and simmer gently for 8 to 10 minutes, until the sauce is a bit thickened.
- Meanwhile, add 2 tablespoons miso to the blender. Purée until completely smooth and creamy, 1 to 2 minutes. Then stir the cashew cream into the tomato sauce and turn the heat off.
- Salt the boiling water so it is as salty as the ocean. Cook pasta according to package directions until just shy of al dente. Toward the end of cooking, scoop out about 1 cup of the pasta water, then drain the pasta.
- Return the hot drained pasta to the pot, and stir in the creamy tomato sauce and 1/2 cup of the reserved pasta water. Taste and adjust the seasonings, if needed. (Add more pasta water if a creamier consistency is desired.) Serve immediately.
Notes
- You can also use blanched almonds. (Roasted cashews have a stronger flavor that may overpower the sauce.)
- Passata or crushed tomatoes may be used instead. Tomato paste can also work; use 1 part paste to 1 part water.
- Miso rounds out the sauce with salty, umami notes. It can technically be subbed with an equal amount of nutritional yeast, though the result won’t be quite as tasty.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1/6 of the recipe
- Calories: 400
- Fat: 11.4 g
- Carbohydrates: 63 g
- Fiber: 4.1 g
- Protein: 12.5 g
