Rigatoni with Tomato and Sunchoke Cream Sauce

 
 
 
 

This recipe for rigatoni with tomato and sunchoke cream sauce by Bryant Terry is one of our recent favorites. It's one of many plant-based recipes in his book, Vegetable Kingdom, and screams creamy-luscious-clever-comfort.

At first glance this recipe might seem daunting (two sauces?!) but it really only takes one pot, and an overlap of ingredient prep to get the job done. We start out this recipe by prepping the sunchoke cream, setting that to the side, and then finishing up with the tomato portion, but whatever order works best for you! This recipe also requires a splash of white wine- we prefer using a white wine we want to drink as you’ll have plenty leftover once you’ve added the small amount to your pasta (dare we say this is the perfect Valentine’s Day dish??).

As noted in the video, the original recipe only calls for a cup and a half of crushed tomatoes, but we decided to get WILD and add in a full 24 oz can and we personally think it turned out delish- bumping up the tomato quantity is also just a great way to get more bang for your buck out of this recipe- we used what we needed for dinner that night and froze the rest! —Dak and Ju

 

Ingredients

For the sunchoke cream:

  • 2 Tbsp Olive Oil

  • 4 oz sunchokes, peeled and finely chopped

  • 1/4 cup diced yellow onion

  • 1 Tbsp millet flour (or any flour of your choosing)

  • 1 cup stock (vegetable, chicken, whatever you have on hand)

  • 1 Tbsp white wine

  • 1/2 tsp salt, more to taste

  • 1/4 cashews, soaked until soft

  • Freshly ground pepper

For the tomato sauce

  • 2 Tbsp Olive Oil

  • 3/4 cup finely chopped yellow onion

  • 4 cloves of garlic

  • 1/2 tsp salt, plus more to taste

  • 2 tablespoons tomato paste

  • 1 1/2 cups canned, crushed tomatoes with their juices (we used a 24 oz can!)

  • 3/4 cup water

  • 1 lb rigatoni (or noodle of choice)

  • Fresh basil, parmesan, flake salt for serving

 

Instructions

Making the sunchoke cream:

  1. In a medium pot, warm olive oil and add sunchokes. Sauté until they just being to soften, about 1-2 minutes. Add in 1/4 cup of onion and sauté until soft, about 3-5 minutes- try not to let the mixture brown too much!

  2. Add in flour and stir to coat onion sunchoke mixture. Pour in stock, wine and add salt. Stir and decrease heat to medium low and simmer, stirring often until the sunchokes are tender, about 10 minutes.

  3. Once the sunchokes are soft, add the mixture to a high powered blender and blend until smooth. Set aside.

Making the tomato sauce:

  1. In the same medium saucepan you just cooked your sunchokes, heat olive oil over medium-high heat. Add 3/4 cup of onion and sauté until it starts to brown, about 6-8 minutes.

  2. Add the garlic, salt and cook until garlic begins to brown and smells fragrant.

  3. Stir in tomato paste and mix well. Allow the tomato paste to cook for a minute or two, until it turns from a bright red to a darker, brick red.

  4. Pour in the canned tomatoes and their juices, add the water and stir. Simmer mixture for about 15 minutes. Taste and season with salt and pepper. Note: we used double the tomatoes called for and it turned out great!

  5. Once your tomato sauce is done simmering, pour in the sunchoke cream that you had set aside. Stir and allow the sunchoke-tomato mixture to simmer and heat through for a minute or three.

  6. Meanwhile, bring a large pot of salted pasta water to a boil over high heat. Cook your noodle of choice according to the package (slightly al dente is best for this recipe!).

  7. Once pasta has cooked through, drain and divide into bowls. Ladle tomato cream sauce over noodles and toss to coat. Top with parmesan, fresh basil, flake salt or any other topping of your choice!

Serves 4-6