This recipe, courtesy of my friend Tom, is the ultimate comfort food. It's a fat pasta bake, but creamy, and with a mushroom bolognese. Can't go wrong.
Serves: 4
Ingredients:
400g pasta of choice
1 punnet of mushrooms
1 red onion
2 garlic cloves
1 tsp dried rosemary
1 tsp dried chilli flakes
pinch of salt and pepper
2 tbsp tomato puree
1 can chopped tomatoes
4 tbsp vegan butter or oil
4 tbsp flour
200 ml plant milk - preferably not something sweet like nut milk; I use soy or hemp
150 ml vegan single cream
2 tbsp nutritional yeast
2 tsp garlic powder
salt and pepper to taste
1 slice of bread - I prefer wholemeal
2 tsp nutritional yeast
1 tbsp mixed herbs
1 tsp garlic powder
1-2 tbsp oil
Method:
1. Cook pasta as directed on the packaging.
2. Blend the mushrooms until they are minced.
3. To make the mushroom bolognese, dice the onion and sweat in a little oil in a saucepan. After a few minutes, add the garlic, minced. After a further couple of minutes, add the minced mushrooms, rosemary and chilli.
4. Once the mushrooms have begun to cook down, add the tomato puree and then the chopped tomatoes. Leave to simmer on a low heat.
5. To make the white sauce, add the vegan butter or oil to a mid sized saucepan and once melted, add the flour. Mix thoroughly and allow to cook for a minute or so to get rid of the floury taste.
6. Add the plant milk bit by bit, whisking constantly so that the butter/flour mixture is incorporated and smooth. As it simmers, add the vegan cream. This isn't essential but helps give the roux body once it goes in the oven as plant milk tends to evaporate easily.
7. As you allow the white sauce to simmer down to your desired consistency, season with the nutritional yeast, garlic powder, and salt and pepper to taste.
8. Combine the pasta and white sauce and add this to a large ovenproof dish. Top this with the mushroom bolognese. You can choose to mix this through the pasta a little, but I quite like it as a layer on top.
9. Blend the bread with the nutritional yeast, mixed herbs and garlic powder in a blender. Sprinkle evenly over the bolognese and drizzle 1-2 tbsp oil over the topping.
10. Bake for 20 minutes at 200*C, or until the topping browns and the bolognese begins to caramelise at the edges.
