I know, I know, it’s been a long time since I’ve updated. Life gets crazy sometimes, you know? Since my last post, I’ve traveled across the country, celebrated a 1-year anniversary with my boyfriend, had Christmas in Monterey with my family, spent New Year’s in Joshua tree with friends, and moved into a fantastic top-floor Victorian flat in San Francisco with my boyfriend. There hasn’t been much time for writing well-thought-out blog entries, but I’m hoping that now that I’m getting settled into the new place, that’ll change–especially since the apartment has a huge kitchen. I’ve been cooking up a storm so far. I made this for the boyfriend and our vegan friend last weekend.
Easy Vodka Tomato Cream Sauce with Sausage (for Pasta)
Short on time or energy and wanting a tasty pasta dish that’ll fill you up without dirtying too many dishes? Here’s a quickie to try out.
I’ve found that I really enjoy vodka pasta sauce, but it always contains cream, which is of course a big no-no for the lactose intolerant. A while back, I was amazed when a friend told me the creamy pasta sauce she was feeding me was vegan. “How??” I asked. The answer was silken tofu. This stuff is amazing. You can use it to make anything creamy–and it’s a lot lower-fat than heavy whipping cream. I’ve been experimenting with it quite a bit lately.
Serves 4
Ingredients:
- 1 jar of your favorite premade tomato-based pasta sauce (make sure
it doesn’t secretly have cheese!). I used a roasted garlic and basil
sauce. - 4 sausages of your choice. I used a package of Aidells Portobello chicken & turkey sausages.
- 7 oz. silken tofu. I used half a 14 oz. brick.
- Vodka to taste
- Pasta
Directions:
Throw the pasta sauce in a pot over medium heat. Once it’s warmed up a bit, pour some vodka in. I’d say I used a couple of ounces. The more vodka you add, the tarter it will become. I added a bit too much at one point and was able to damper it a little by adding some olive oil.
Put the tofu in the blender and blend it till it’s smooth and creamy. You might want to water it down a little with some soymilk so it’s not quite so thick. Add it to the tomato sauce and stir it in.
Cook the sausages per the instructions on the package. I fried mine up in a little olive oil in a cast-iron skillet. Cut them up (I like to cut rounds, and then cut the rounds in half), and add them to the tomato sauce, which should be quite warm at this point.
Cook the pasta to your taste. Serve it with the tomato cream sauce. Delish! And it reheats well, too.
I like this recipe because it can be as quick & easy as you like. You can choose to make it like I did with prepackaged foods, or you can make it entirely from scratch: use that tomato sauce recipe that’s been in your family for generations, and put that meat grinder to work! It would work equally well with meatballs. Alternately you can leave the meat out for a tasty vegan dinner.