‘Creamy tomato pasta’ is a regular dinnertime dish over here. It turns out a little different every time — it’s such a versatile dish. You can pretty much include any veg you’ve got kicking around in the fridge, lentils, beans and even plant-based meat. But last week when I made this meal, it turned out so well, I felt it was time to share the recipe here on the site.

A few recipe notes: for the sausage, I prefer Beyond Meat’s non-spicy Sweet Italian version. They really up the decadence of this dish. If you don’t have garlic powder, you can definitely use fresh garlic (the only reason I use garlic powder is to save time and energy). For the mushrooms, any kind will work. I happened to have white mushrooms when I made this dish and, bonus, they are the least expensive type. Mezzetta Marinara sauce is hands down my favourite — any of their plant-based marinara-type sauces will work here.

For dairy-free cream sauces, cashews are often used, but I’ve found that most nuts work in their place. I used walnuts here and it was delicious! The walnut flavour isn’t strong — if I hadn’t made the dish myself, I wouldn’t have guessed walnuts were the base of the cream sauce.

Ingredients

For the pasta sauce

• 2 tbsp olive oil (or other neutral-tasting oil)
• 1 red onion (chopped)
• 1 tbsp garlic powder
• 1 green pepper (chopped into bite-sized pieces)
• 2 vegan sausages (finely chopped) (I use Beyond Meat)
• 8 large white mushrooms (sliced)
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 jar marinara sauce

For the cream sauce

• 1 c walnuts (or other nut or seed of choice)
• 1 c water

For the pasta

• ~1.5 (12oz / 340g) packs of pasta
• Chili flakes (optional garnish)

• Heat olive oil in a large pan over medium to medium high heat and add onions. Fry until translucent (about five minutes). Add in garlic powder and fry for a minute, then add chopped green peppers and crumbled or finely chopped sausages. Once sausages are well-cooked and browned, add in the mushrooms and increase heat by a few notches. Cook until mushrooms are soft and lightly browned.
• Add marina sauce to the pan and bring to a gentle simmer.
• In the meantime, cook pasta using package instructions and prepare cream sauce by adding all ingredients to a blender and blending until smooth.
• Add cream sauce to your pan and lower heat. Stir everything together.
• To serve, add pasta to dinner bowls and load on your chunky creamy tomato sauce. Garnish with chili flakes if you like a little heat.