Pasta is my favorite food and I always love the authentic sauces or recipes best. However, I continue to be so incredibly impressed with the way you can create a dairy-free, creamy sauce with cashews. I’m not vegan and I do not have any allergies to dairy, but I find myself making cashew sauces often because it’s so delicious and easy! Creamy pasta sauces are very heavy (and not the healthiest!), so typically I wouldn’t eat them too much to begin with. Now that I have fallen in love with healthier alternatives to creamy sauces, I love creating new pasta dishes with the very silky and creamy, dairy-free, cashew cream sauce. The flavor combination of truffle and mushroom is a classic pair known for its dynamite flavor. I love hints of lemon in cheese or cream so I just knew that would be the perfect garnish for this dish. You can finish this recipe under 30 minutes, it looks fancy, yet incredibly simple.

Ingredients:

• 158g (about 2 cups) raw cashews

• 2 cups vegetable broth

• 1 lemon, zest and juice

• Salt

• Black pepper

• 2 tablespoon nutritional yeast

• 2 cloves of garlic

• Pinch of nutmeg

• 2 tablespoons olive oil

• 8oz baby bella mushrooms, sliced

• 2-3 tablespoons of black truffle oil ( for a drizzling garnish)

• 12oz (340g) bucatini (or another long pasta)

• 1 cup of reserved pasta water 

Instructions:

1. CREAM SAUCE: Place cashews in a small or medium sized bowl, set aside. In a small saucepan or tea kettle, boil a few cups of water, just enough to pour over the cashews. Let the cashews soak in its bowl with very hot water for 15 minutes. Once the cashews are soaked, drain them and place the cashews in a powerful blender. Add: garlic, nutmeg, nutritional yeast, 1 teaspoon of salt, juice of half the lemon (save the other half to use its zest for a garnish at the end). I like to add all 2 cups of the broth. You can start with 1 ½ cups though if you like your cream sauce to be thicker. You can always thin it out with the remaining broth or any extra you have. 

2. In the meantime, start boiling a pot of water for the pasta. Cook the bucatini until very al dente.

3. While the pasta is boiling, in another large pan or wok, saute the mushrooms with olive oil over medium heat. Sprinkle with black pepper, stir and let the mushrooms cook for 2-3 minutes, or until they become tender. Add a ladle of the starchy pasta water to the mushrooms, then reserve a cup of pasta water before draining it. Add the very al dente bucatini to the pan with the mushrooms. Continually toss to combine and mix up the juices and bits in the pan for about 30 seconds to a minute. Then add the cashew cream sauce. Continue to toss and heat over medium to medium-low for another minute or two. The bucatini will finish cooking here in the cream, that’s why you want it to be very al dente. As it’s over heat, the cashew cream thickens. At any point if it’s too thick for your liking, you can add a splash of broth or pasta water until it reaches your desired thickness. If you didn’t have any more broth, you can always add another splash of the reserved pasta water. Add any more salt to taste. 

4. Serve immediately with freshly cracked black pepper, lemon zest and a drizzle of truffle oil.

5. If you have any leftovers, the sauce won’t be as creamy, but you can use broth to liven it up again as you reheat it. 

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