Recipe Wed Feb 18 2009

Creamy Uncreamy Red Sauce

Vodka sauces must love tomatoes and cream. The three go well together for a simple pasta dish, but they also inspire me to drop the vodka and just make a creamy red sauce for my linguini or bow ties. Actually, I drop the cream, too, and add something else to lighten and pinken the color of the red sauce, something that will round out the tomato flavor. Tahini can work, but its bitterness must often be balanced with the likes of lemon or vinegar. Hummus is the real magician. It may sound odd, but it mellows out a red sauce quite well without being at all heavy, plus it's vegan, which is, of course, why I'm posting about it.

My roomie sautéed onions and garlic in olive oil to kick off the sauce for our dinner before we added seitan chorizo and a large can of tomatoes. Our tomatoes were unsalted, and since tomatoes love salt, we salted until the sauce tasted full like any pasta sauce should. The sauce simmered to thicken up, and I mixed in a few spoonfuls of spicy hummus as my roomie added her dried hot chili powder to liven it up. Just a few minutes before the pasta was done - following package instructions - some broccoli florets went in, finely chopped to speed the cooking, and then spinach leaves when only about a minute was left on the clock.

— Chris Brunn / Comments (2)