Pasta Primavera with Creamy Avellana Cheese Sauce

There are many uses for Avellana cheese aside from putting it on crackers and bread. This evening I used a block of Italian herb to make a delicious, rich and creamy sauce for pasta primavera. Here’s how I did it.

What you need:

• One block of Italian herb Avellana cheese (available for purchase at VeganEssentials.com)

• a few cloves of garlic

• vegetables good for roasting (I used cauliflower, asparagus, cherry tomatoes, and yellow squash)

• salt

• 1.5 C Eden soy milk or another high quality non-dairy milk. (You can use less for a thicker sauce.)

•one package of fettuccine pasta

First, Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. Then, cook the fettuccine al dente and set aside. Do put a dash of salt in the water, it shortens boiling time and makes the noodles more flavorful. Chop up the vegetables, drizzle olive oil and salt to taste, then roast the vegetables in the oven for about 10 minutes total. I like the cauliflower and garlic to get a little browned so I put it in first for about five minutes and add the squash, asparagus, and tomatoes for the last five minutes. While the vegetables are roasting, pour soy milk into a saucepan (use less soy milk for a thicker sauce). Add 1 tablespoon of vinegar. I use coconut, but the type isn’t super important. You can also use a different type of milk, but the vinegar is used to curdle the protein, so it will need to be a good, high quality non-dairy milk. Non-dairy milk that has been highly processed and diluted with additives will not thicken. Eden unsweetened is my favorite commercial soy milk. You can see it thicken up right way as you pour the vinegar in and whisk it. Curdled milk has a MUCH higher flavor range and is creamier than uncurdled milk. I’ve never tried to curdle coconut milk, so I’m not sure how that works.  Add the block of Avellana Signature Italian Herb Cheese and continue to whisk until smooth and creamy. (Tip-You can heat this up a little to speed up the whisking, but heat is not necessary and will reduce the amount of probiotics in the finished product.) Place your noodles in a bowl, toss some roasted vegetables on top, then pour a little creamy sauce over everything and you’re good to go! You can decorate your final dish with a little smoked paprika or leave it as is.   YUM!