Creamy Cherry Tomato Sauce Pasta (Vegan) would be a perfect comfort food to make when sweet and juicy cherry tomatoes are in season. This vegan creamy tomato sauce has no dairy or cream at all (not even plant-based milk or nut milk) but it's very rich and creamy.
Prep Time10 minutesmins
Cook Time40 minutesmins
Total Time50 minutesmins
Course: Main
Cuisine: Italian Inspired
Servings: 2
Author: Plant-Based Matters
Ingredients
Cooking Pasta
3qtwater
2tbspsea salt
8ozdried fettucineor any pasta of your choice
The Rest
3tbspextra virgin olive oilplus more for serving
3large cloves garlicminced
1/4tspdried red chili pepper flakesadjust to taste
Start boiling water in a medium to large pot for cooking pasta.
Meanwhile, prepare the sauce. In a cold large frying pan, add extra virgin olive oil and then add garlic. Turn the heat on at medium heat and cook the garlic for 2-3 minutes until fragrant. Then, add dried red chili pepper flakes. Cook for a minute or less until fragrant.
Next, add tomatoes and cook for 1-2 minutes then add oregano and sea salt. Stir well and cook for 3-4 minutes until tomatoes are softened.
Once tomatoes are softened, add wine and cook off the alcohol. Reduce the heat to medium low and continue to cook for another 3-4 minutes until the consistency becomes reduced and thick.
Remove the sauce from the heat and transfer the sauce to a glass measuring cup or other tall heat-resistant bowl. Use an immersion blender to purée the sauce until creamy and smooth. Transfer the sauce back to the same pan and keep it warm over low heat.
At this point, add sea salt to the boiling pasta water and start cooking fettucine for 10 minutes or any pasta of your choice according to the instructions on the package.
A few minutes before the pasta is done, add 1/4 cup / 60 ml pasta cooking water to the sauce. Stir well.
Drain the pasta and transfer to the sauce. Add black pepper then give a quick toss.
Serve with basil leaves, vegan parmesan cheese (optional), and drizzle some extra virgin olive oil for the finishing touch.
Notes
Choice of Pasta
Any pasta of your choice should work with this recipe but wide and/or flat pasta such as fettucine, linguine, tagliatelle or pappardelle would be my recommendations.
For tagliatelle and pappardelle, check the label to make sure they are eggless as they are traditionally made with eggs.
I use fettucine in the recipe.
Choice of Cherry Tomatoes
Any cherry tomatoes of your choice would work for this recipe. The sweetness for cherry tomatoes makes rich & creamy pasta sauce (without using any cream) after being puréed.
I use heirloom black cherry tomatoes.
To Purée Tomato Sauce
Using an immersion blender (hand blender) would be the most convenient way to purée the sauce.
If you don’t have an immersion blender, you could use a smaller size stand blender.
Cheese (optional)
Vegan parmesan-style cheese would be a great choice of optional topping for this pasta.
I use my Brazil Nut Parmesan as the topping.
Variation
Instead of fresh basil, try using Japanese shiso perilla leaves. Shiso is very fragrant which adds a nice accent to a dish.
There are two different types of shiso leaves, green and red, which in this recipe, green shiso is used.
Major Japanese grocery stores should carry shiso leaves. I buy (online) shiso leaves from Suzuki Farm (the availability may be seasonal.) They have extensive selections of authentic Japanese produce.