updated: 1/6/24
I love tomatoes. A LOT. Sometimes raw with just a little salt on top. But marinara sauce done over and over feels stale now and then. This is why I'm subbing it out completely for another member of the nightshade team: red bell pepper. 
I love that this dish is plant-based, even if I am no longer a vegetarian. You can eat it just as it is on top of pasta, or you can brown some meatballs to throw into the mix, which is what I did with this iteration (I keep the IKEA chicken and veg kind in the fridge). This recipe has a few iterations online already but I add gochujang and soy sauce for extra depth. There is a lovely smokiness lent by the roasted red peppers, which can be found in most grocery stores in the Italian, or in my case, the kosher section.
Time: 15-20min
Serves: 4 (but who am i kidding we eat the whole thing as 2)
Ingredients:
- 1 lb pasta (I prefer shells to noodles for this)
- 13 oz jar of roasted red pepper, liquid reserved (I use Galil)
- 1 small onion, roughly chopped
- 4 big cloves of garlic, roughly chopped
- 1 tbsp gochujang
- 1 tbsp soy sauce
- 1 tsp smoked paprika
- 1 tsp onion powder
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 1/2 tsp ground black pepper
- 1/3 cup cashews, soaked (15-20 min is good enough AND 1/2 cup oat milk
- OR 2 cups coconut milk
- 2-3 tbsp nutritional yeast
- 1 tbsp Better Than Bouillon roasted chicken base (top 5 item in my pantry)
- 1 tsp MSG
- salt and pepper to taste
- handful of basil leaves
- frozen meatballs, if you want
Steps:
- Boil water for your pasta. Only salt after it begins to boil! (it's faster)
- In a saucepan that is large enough to mix in the pasta once boiled, sweat your onions and garlic on low. When translucent add gochujang and the spices to bloom them for a couple minutes.
- Move the onion-garlic-spice mixture into a blender with everything else: the red peppers from the jar, soaked cashews and 1/2 cup oat milk OR 2 cups coconut milk, nutritional yeast, bouillon base, and the MSG, if using (use it you coward)
- Blitz until creamy smooth and admire that gorgeous color.
- If using, brown the meatballs in the same sauce pan you used before while you cook your pasta to al dente.
- Add the cooked pasta to the meatballs in the saucepan, and then the red pepper sauce from the blender and stir on low until it just begins to bubble, then turn off the heat.
- Top with a chiffonade of basil and serve. I also added a drizzle of my homemade charred garlic oil.
Note: The consistency should be like kraft mac and cheese (making a simliar sound too. ASMR, anyone?) if too thick, you can thin out the sauce with more oat milk or water, one tbsp at a time.
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| A nice peppery salad with an acidic dressing pairs nicely with this smokey dish |