Creamy vegan pasta sauce

Although I'm not vegetarian, let alone vegan, I've been curious for a while about vegan cookery not least because these days I can only eat a very small amount of dairy for health reasons - and of course vegan recipes avoid dairy products altogether. But I've got to admit that when I was sent a new vegan cookbook recently I wasn't expecting to get excited about it. I was very pleasantly surprised by some of the innovative ideas though, and now that I've tried out a few of the recipes, I'd go as far as to say that I'm really impressed. The book is I Can Cook Vegan by Isa Chandra Moskowitz (published by Abrams) and one of my favourite ideas from it is blitzing whole, unsalted cashews with vegetable stock to make a creamy sauce or dressing, as in this pasta dish - it really does make the sauce taste as though it's made with cream.

I used some homemade tomato sauce (frozen last summer, when I had a glut of tomatoes) but a can of tomatoes is what the recipe originally called for and that works well too. Also, the book's recipe uses basil, but as that's not in season at the moment I used parsley - still delicious.

The recipe here is adapted from 'Penne Vodka' in the book (as regular readers of my blog will know, I'm completely incapable of following anyone else's recipe to the letter!). Vodka is actually a key ingredient here - although ostensibly flavourless, when the alcohol is cooked off it works a little like salt in that it magically accentuates the other flavours in the dish. I've tried leaving the vodka out and you can really taste the difference. (If you happen to have some Japanese sake, this will work in the same way.)

I'm pleased to see the author agrees with me that, for some dishes, slicing garlic is better than crushing it - it means you get little hits of its flavour in the finished dish rather than it melding into the overall taste.

If you've never cooked vegan before, this would be a really good dish to start with. More to follow soon - I'm looking forward to trying some of Isa's ideas for tofu, which I've never really enjoyed eating before so it will be interesting to see if she can convert me! And I'll be trying out a recipe using the cashew nut trick in a salad dressing soon too.

Creamy vegan pasta sauce

1 tbsp olive oil
2 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
1 large onion, chopped
Can of plum tomatoes
half tsp chilli flakes
120ml vodka
60g whole unroasted cashew nuts
120ml vegetable stock (as ever, I used Knorr Stockpot)
handful fresh parsley (or basil), chopped

Gently fry the onions with a pinch of salt until soft and translucent, and add the garlic for the last minute or so. Add the tomatoes and chilli flakes with some black pepper, stir and heat through then add the vodka. Bring to the boil for a minute then turn down to a low simmer for 5 mins.

Put the cashews and stock in a high-speed blender or smoothie maker and whizz for about a minute until completely smooth. Stir into the tomatoes with half the parsley or basil and heat through.

Check to see if you need more salt (the stock may have added enough already) and serve with penne pasta, scattered with the remaining parsley.

Serves 4-6

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