Sun-Dried Tomato Pasta

OK, I have a confession to make. When we testers receive recipes, we are not supposed to make changes. But I am a vegan (by choice) and gluten-free (out of medical necessity). And I know I’m not the only one out there. This recipe was soooo very close, I knew I just had to go with it.

The recipe gives very specific cooking times for specific brands of angel hair pasta, none of which are gluten-free. My gluten-free pasta was Le Veneziane brand, and the cooking time on the package was 3 to 4 minutes, so I went with the lowest end of the range, and cooked for 3 minutes. The recipe also tells us not to use a pasta formed into nests. Well, my brand of gluten-free angel hair comes formed into nests. Sorry, not sorry, there is really nothing I can do about this, because gluten-free angel hair isn’t growing on trees. The good news is that there are these amazing things called cooking chopsticks, which are awesome for prying apart nests of pasta (and a lot of other things, like turning foods as you fry them).

For the sauce, I made it as written, but chose to blend it in the food processor attachment to my immersion blender instead of a full-sized food processor. It’s just been my experience that the immersion blender attachment works better for pestos and smaller amounts of sauces.

The pasta turned out perfectly, as did the sauce. Despite the amount of mint in the sauce, it wasn’t overly minty. It really just balanced out the intense umami of sun-dried tomatoes with a pleasant herbal note. Since there is no vegan Pecorino Romano as of yet, I opted for a little bit of grated vegan parmesan. But with the toasted pine nuts adding interest, I don’t think any cheese, vegan or other, was really necessary.