This recipe originally comes from The First Mess (link below) and it is so good! I love the creaminess of the pasta in combination with the roasted corn and red peppers. If you don’t like spicy foods or have a low tolerance to heat, I recommend omitting or just adding a pinch of red pepper flakes.
Ingredients
1 small red onion, chopped
2 cloves of garlic, chopped
¼-½ teaspoon chili flakes (I used ½ teaspoon the first time and it was just a tad too spicy)
1 medium yellow zucchini, chopped
Salt and black pepper, to taste
¼ cup of raw cashews (if you don’t have a high-speed blender, soak for at least 1 hour and drain)
3 roasted red peppers, divided
3 tablespoons of nutritional yeast
1 ½ tablespoons of light miso
2 tablespoons of lemon juice
1 ½ teaspoons of Dijon mustard
1 teaspoon of Tamari soy sauce or coconut aminos
½ teaspoon of smoked paprika
½ cup of vegetable stock (or water)
About ¾ lb of pasta
2 cobs of corn
½ cup of fresh basil leaves, roughly chopped
Preparation
Add about a tablespoon of water, red onion, garlic, and chili flakes to a pan and cook, stirring often, until soft and slightly translucent on the edges, about 3 minutes. Add the chopped zucchini and season with salt and pepper. Sauté and stir often until zucchini is soft on the edges–about another 4-5 minutes.
Transfer the sautéed zucchini mixture to an upright blender. To the blender add the cashews, 2 of the roasted red peppers, nutritional yeast, miso, lemon juice, Dijon, tamari, smoked paprika, and vegetable stock, plus a little bit of salt and pepper. Blend the mixture on high until smooth and creamy, about 1 full minute. Add more stock by the tablespoon if necessary to get a thick but pourable consistency. Set aside.
Give the large sauté pan a wipe and place it back over high heat. Cut the kernels off of the corn cobs and toss the kernels into the skillet. Sauté the corn until there’s a bit of char on the edges and the corn is soft, about 7-8 minutes, add a splash of water if corn starts sticking. Season with salt and pepper and set aside.
Cook the pasta according to package directions and drain. Reserve about a cup of the pasta cooking water.
Slice the remaining roasted red pepper into strips. In the large skillet with the corn, also add the roasted red pepper strips, cooked pasta, red pepper sauce, and chopped basil. Set the heat to medium. Add splashes of pasta cooking water if needed to loosen up the sauce. Keep stirring until pasta is nice and hot.
Recipe Origin: