
Yields:
4 serving(s)
Prep Time:
10 mins
Total Time:
30 mins
Cal/Serv:
958
After a long day, there's arguably nothing nicer than homemade bowl of creamy pasta. Far too often, I’ve tried vegan sauces that just don’t quite get the creaminess down right, so I decided to solve this problem outright with this instant classic: creamy Tuscan vegan pasta. This recipe takes a note from our classic creamy Tuscan chicken, but made vegan-friendly while still maintaining the creaminess you know and love.
This recipe is as easy as it can get—you probably have a good majority of these ingredients already at home, and those you don’t are easy to pick up after work! The main star of this dish are the sun-dried tomatoes—they bring all that sweetness and umami to this dish. They get cooked down slowly with some garlic, some spinach for earthiness, basil for a pop of freshness, an addition of nutritional yeast to get that cheesy, nutty flavor that a non-vegan dish would get from the Parmesan, and to finish it off, a dollop of vegan sour cream to bind everything together.
I tried several different vegan sour creams and now definitively think Tofutti is the best, as it has a creamier consistency than vegan cream cheese, and it doesn’t have that hard lactic tang that many other brands have.
Don’t have rigatoni? This can definitely be made with all kinds of pasta like farfalle, penne, and even spaghetti. Have this recipe as a base sauce and replace it with whichever you’d like!
Did you make this recipe? Let us know what you think in the comments down below!
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Ingredients
Kosher salt
- 1 lb.
rigatoni
- 1/4 cup
extra-virgin olive oil
- 1
(10-oz.) jar sun-dried tomatoes, drained, thinly sliced
- 4
garlic cloves, minced
- 5 oz.
fresh spinach (about 5 cups)
- 1/4 cup
nutritional yeast
- 10
whole basil leaves
- 1
(12-oz.) container vegan sour cream
Directions
- Step 1In a large pot of boiling salted water, cook pasta, stirring occasionally, until very al dente, about 2 minutes less than package directions. Reserve at least 1 cup pasta water before draining.
- Step 2Meanwhile, in another large pot over medium heat, heat oil. Add tomatoes and cook, stirring occasionally, until softened and slightly darker in color, about 8 minutes. Add garlic and cook, stirring, until fragrant, about 1 minute more. Add spinach, yeast, and basil and cook, stirring, until wilted and warmed through, about 2 minutes.
- Step 3Add a splash of reserved pasta water and cook, stirring, until mixture is saucy, about 1 minute. Add sour cream and stir until combined, then add pasta. Gradually add more pasta water, stirring constantly to prevent bottom from browning, until sauce is a thick, creamy consistency.
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