vegan mofo: spagheeetti romeeesco

When I had cable, I would pretty much only watch cooking shows, and those mostly on Food Network (surprise!). Giada DeLaurentis was a favorite of mine, as almost all of her recipes were really simple, and therefore easy to veganize. I never saw her make romesco sauce, but whenever I say spaghetti, I either pronounce it spa-ghee-ti out loud or in my head.

Lately I’ve only been buying whole wheat pasta, and while I used to dislike it greatly, I now know that if it’s cooked just right, it can be just as delicious as its less healthy white counterpart. For this recipe I used whole wheat spaghetti (which turned out tasting almost like regular somehow), and based the sauce off the chickpea romesco sauce I made once out of Veganomicon.

I haven’t really looked at the original recipe since then, but this sauce is so versatile it can be made by throwing the basic ingredients in a food processor without measuring too much, then heating it through. I’ve made it with only raw almonds, a mix of roasted and raw almonds, canned plum tomatoes with basil, fire-roasted tomatoes, fresh basil (added in at the end), dried tarragon (the secret herb my mom always put in her tomato sauce), red pepper flakes, and anywhere from one to three roasted bell peppers. It ALWAYS turns out scrumtrulescently, and can be poured on pretty much anything.

The version pictured above had a higher ratio of almonds to tomatoes than usual, as well as a really big garlic clove that was processed in with everything, so the sauce had to be cooked a bit longer to mellow out the flavor. I LOVE THIS SAUCE!