A photo alone will never do this pasta justice, impossible to capture all the flavor in this photo!
I am realizing that there are so many recipes that I do that have sundried tomatoes, but honestly, this obsession has brought out some really incredible dishes! I really think sundried tomatoes are underrated and this dish really shines a light on them!
There are so many flavors coming from the different variations of tomatoes in this recipe. I wanted a creamy pasta, others wanted a tomato based pasta, so I thought to create a pasta that had both and bring in the sundried tomato for an added "smokey/sweet" taste and boy did it pay off! There are so many rich flavors in this while remaining silky smooth and absolutely delicious! This was such an easy pasta to make as well!
Recipe Details
Ingredients for dough (dry):
500g of Fusilli Pasta
4 whole tomatoes
4 tablespoons of sundried tomatoes
1 can of tomato purée
1 tablespoon of tomato paste
3/4 cup of cashews
1 cup of water
3 cloves of garlic
1 tsp pepper
Salt to taste
Description:
1. First, chop up the 3 cloves of garlic, along with the 4 tablespoons of sundried tomatoes. In a pan on medium high heat, heat up about a tablespoon of olive oil along with the chopped garlic. As the garlic begins to tan, add in the sundried tomatoes and let cook for about a minute before removing from the pan and setting aside.
2. Next, start by slicing all 4 of the tomatoes into roughly 1/2 inch slices. Once they have all been sliced, in the same pan, add another tablespoon of olive oil and put all of the tomato slices face side down. Let the tomatoes cook on each side for about 5 minutes moving them around continually to prevent them from burning. As the tomatoes cook they will get very soft and start to break down, releasing a bunch of water in the process. Add 1 tsp of pepper, and about 1 teaspoon of salt before adding 1 tablespoon of tomato paste and mixing it in thoroughly.
3. After about 10 minutes of the tomatoes dehydrating and building deeper flavors in the pan, return all the garlic and sundried tomatoes to the pan and add in the can of the tomato purée and let cook for another 5 minutes or so while you work on the "cream" for the pasta sauce.
4. As the sauce cooks, now would be a good time to put a pot with water and salt on to boil. Once the water begins to boil, add in the 500g of Fusilli pasta and let cook for about 7 minutes. Next, in a blender, combine 3/4 cup of cashews, and the 1 cup of water with another pinch of salt and let it all blend together until evenly blended with as few cashew chunks as possible. If it seems as though there is too much liquid add more cashews and vice versa, if its too thick, add more water until a creamy/silky consistency is achieved.
5. Once you have reached your desired consistency with the cashew cream, add it strait to the pan with the tomato sauce and sundried tomatoes. Make sure to mix well so everything is equally dispersed in the pan. Continue to let the sauce cook and in the meantime, after about 7 minutes or right before the pasta becomes "al dente," strain the pasta leaving about 1 cup of pasta water on the side. Pour in all the pasta and let cook for about another minute adding in small amounts of the pasta water to help thin out the thickness of the sauce. This will also add some salt, so be sure to taste the pasta and add salt if it is needed.
6. Once everything has been added in, mixed in well, and perfectly seasoned with salt and pepper to taste, only thing left to do is plate up and enjoy!
Try it and Let Me Know What YOU think!
If you try this recipe and love it as much as I do, please send me a picture of what you make! I would love to see how other people interpret the recipe and if there are any additions that you made!
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