Did you see me cook live tonight on Facebook? I made this dish LIVE and it was so much fun. I wanted something indulgent, but still relatively healthy for me. At 427 calories, a bowl of this pasta hit the spot!
Ingredients:
2 vegan Italian sausages
2 tablespoons of olive oil, divided
1 cup of diced onions
3 cloves of garlic, minced
salt and pepper, to taste
1 cup of good white wine
1 cup of vegetable stock
1 cup of vegan half and half
1/2 teaspoon of water mixed with 1/2 teaspoon of cornstarch
1 pinch of red pepper flakes
About a half teaspoon of each of the following: dried fennel, dried basil, dried thyme, garlic powder, and onion powder
1/2 pound of cooked pasta
4 cups of thinly sliced kale
Directions:
To start, when you cook the pasta, be sure to cook it in salty water. My golden rule is simple – over salt the water, under cook the pasta! Set it aside until we’re ready for it.
Meanwhile, warm the sausages through by heating 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a skillet and cooking the sausages in the hot oil on all sides until warmed through. Then, set aside.
To make the sauce, saute the onions in olive oil until tender. While they’re sauteing, season with a bit of salt and pepper. Then, once they’re tender, add in the garlic and let the garlic cook for about 60 seconds. Next, add in the white wine and the vegetable stock and let the mixture reduce by about half. Once that happens, you can add in the half and half, the dried fennel, dried basil, dried thyme, garlic powder, onion powder, and red pepper flakes. After you season the sauce, taste it. If it needs salt, then add some. Let this mixture come to a boil, then throw in the kale. Reduce the heat and let it simmer.
If you’re in a hurry (like most of us), then, mix together the cornstarch and water. While the heat is on and the sauce is bubbling, ...
... add a bit of the slurry at a time until you get the desired thickness of your sauce. Then, add in the pasta, and once it heats through, you can serve.
If you watch the video, I did whip up a garlic & basil cream and a quick garlic bread. Here’s how I did it.
For the garlic & basil cream, just soak a cup of raw cashews in some water for about an hour. Then, add the cashews and about a half cup of the water to a blender. Blend until smooth and creamy. Then, season the cream by adding in a good pinch of salt, a good pinch of pepper, a half teaspoon of dried basil and 2 cloves of minced garlic. I poured this over the top of my serving of pasta.
And for the garlic bread, I just added vegan butter, salt, pepper, dried parsley, and a few cloves of garlic to a food processor and blended until smooth. Then, I spread it over bread an bake it until it’s nice and crusty.