growing up, tomato-basil soup from a neighborhood restaurant, La Madeleine, was one of my favorite dishes. i’d have it every Sunday for lunch with my grandmother. flash forward to today, and i’m not much of a soup person. i’d much prefer to have flavor in whole foods themselves, at least for the current trend in my cooking world.
i’ve been cooking with canned fire roasted tomatoes for awhile now. they add so much flavor in curries and stir-fries without any effort on your part. so i thought i’d add them to soaked cashews with a few other add-in’s and test out what a pasta sauce would be like. i get my organic fire roasted tomatoes on Thrive Market, and i’ve bought them at my local Whole Foods, too. i get my angel hair pasta on Thrive Market, too, since I am obsessed with this chickpea pasta from Banza and can find it the cheapest there.
cashews make the creamiest sauce base, and paired with the deep flavor of the tomatoes and the fresh basil, it’s a sauce fit for no less than angel hair pasta. 😇
all of my recipes are college-level easy, and this is literally one of the easiest recipes of all-time. you can even omit the spices if you’re lazy, like i often am. the cashews, tomatoes, and basil are honestly enough. just soak, blend, and go! paired with steamed broccolini, this has become one of my go-to ten-minute-dinners, and i’m sure it’ll be one of yours, too.
fire-roasted tomato-basil angel hair pasta
Ingredients
(serves 3)
FIRE-ROASTED TOMATO-BASIL PASTA SAUCE
1 C raw cashews, soaked for 4+ hours
1 can fire roasted tomatoes
1 C fresh basil
1/2 t coriander
1/4 t garlic powder
salt and pepper, to taste
OTHER INGREDIENTS
1 box angel hair pasta
1 head broccolini
more basil, to top
Instructions
soak your cashews for at least 4 hours beforehand. blend with your tomatoes, basil, and spices. if the tomatoes don’t contain enough water for the sauce to blend easily, you can add a splash. you want the sauce thick and creamy but still pourable.
cook your pasta according to box instructions. i like to steam my broccolini at the same time in a basket above the water. steam the broccolini just until bright green to still retain some crunch.
once noodles are cooked, coat in sauce. plate alongside broccolini spears and top with sprigs of fresh basil.
