Simply Pasta is a recipe column in which Best of Vegan contributor Teri-Ann Carty delves into her 20-year experience in fine dining and shares her best practices and recipes for making amazing pasta. In the new installment of Simply Pasta, she shares her recipe for an easy-to-make yet decadent vegan truffle gnocchi.
There was a pasta on the menu at my last restaurant that never changed. It was by far the most ordered dish on our menu and IF we had changed it there would have been a mutiny. The dish was Wild Mushroom Stuffed Ravioli swimming in a porcini mushroom cream sauce. It was the very definition of decadent and my guests couldn’t get enough of it. I wanted to bring those flavors to my table for this month’s Simply Pasta and by golly, I think I did.
Now for my recipe, I went with potato gnocchi and while I would LOVE to tell you they are homemade, they are not. I am getting around to perfecting my recipe for said gnocchis and promise they will make it here someday soon. You could easily swap out the gnocchi for your favorite noodle or stuffed pasta, whatever you like! Do You. I will tell you that the noodle really doesn’t matter because what we are REALLY here for is the sauce.
The sauce is luscious and gets even more of an upgrade with high-quality truffle oil and, wait for it, fresh black truffle. Truffles are famously known as one of the most expensive ingredients on the planet. They can be found all over the world but the most sought after are found in Italy and France. My tiny truffle came from Croatia, it cost me $36 and it all went into two bowls.
Truffles aren’t to everyone’s taste and they certainly aren’t in everyone’s budget so feel free to omit both the oil and the tuber. But if you are curious, head to your specialty shop and ask about them, even if you only want to smell them. Everyone should have this experience once in their lifetime.
Ingredients
- ½ cup cashews - soaked minimum 3 hours
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- ½ tsp chili flakes
- 1 small onion diced
- 1 clove garlic minced
- ½ lemon juiced
- 1 heaping tbsp miso
- 2 tbsp Dijon mustard
- 3 tbsp nutritional yeast
- ¾ cup non-dairy milk
- 1 cup hot pasta water
- 6 cups mixed wild mushrooms
- 2 tbsp truffle oil divided - more to taste
- Sea salt and cracked pepper
- 1 small black truffle - thinly sliced (I used a mandolin)
- 1 bag pre-made gnocchi
Instructions
- Measure ½ cup raw cashews and place in a bowl. Cover with water and let sit for a minimum 3 hours.
- Boil a large pot of water. Salt the water before adding your gnocchi. Cook pasta till al dente and reserve a cup of pasta water before draining.
- While the gnocchi is cooking, heat oil and chilli flakes in a large pan. Add in diced onion and cook until translucent. Add in garlic and sauté for 30 more seconds. Scrape onions and garlic into a blender. Drain and rinse cashews and add to the blender with lemon juice, miso, dijon mustard, nutritional yeast, salt, cracked pepper and milk. Add ¼ cup of hot pasta water and blend to combine. If the sauce is too thick, add a splash more pasta water.
- Add a splash more oil to the pan and sauté the mushrooms. Try not to overcrowd the pan, cook in batches if you need to. Once mushrooms are browned, season with salt and pepper.
- Add cooked gnocchi to the pan with mushrooms followed by sauce. Toss to combine. I like to add a couple more splashes of pasta water to bring the sauce together. Add 1 tbsp truffle oil and toss again. Taste for seasoning. Transfer to bowls and drizzle the rest of the truffle oil on top. Place thinly sliced truffle on top and serve immediately.
Notes
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Recipe, text, and photography by Teri-Ann Carty.
I’m so astonished that there hasn’t been some comment on this yet… maybe the truffle is too fancy for many to try out? Either way, this was DELICIOUS! Thank you for sharing this. I just made the recipe, it’s easy and quick to make – about 20 minutes. I quick-soaked the cashews with boiling water for 10 minutes, though, to save on time. The sauce is absolutely wonderful, creamy, tangy, with just enough onion and garlic to give it real flavor without dominating the sauce, and very umami – what with miso and then mushrooms… really a delight and so easy to make!
Amazing! Brought this to a friend’s truffle party and it was the star dish!