This baked Pasta Pasta Pizzaiola made vegan is a mouthwatering and ultra creamy primo piatto made with simple ingredients. Our Pizzaiola Pasta bake has three layers of delicious creaminess. A rich tomato sauce, a smooth homemade béchamel sauce, and a vegan cheese topping that gives a melted umami taste and texture.
🎥 YouTube Video
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📋 Recipe
Baked Pasta Pizzaiola Vegan
Ingredients
- 250 grams (3 cups) uncooked fusilli pasta, or penne
- 100 grams (4 oz) meltable vegan cheese
- 10 leaves (10 leaves) fresh basil
Béchamel Sauce
- 250 ml (1 cup) soy milk
- 25 grams (1 oz) vegetable butter
- 25 grams (1 oz) all purpose flour
- ½ tsp (½ tsp) nutmeg, grated
- ½ tsp (½ tsp) salt
- ½ tsp (½ tsp) pepper
Pizzaiola Sauce
- 2 tbsp (2 tbsp) extra virgin olive oil
- 2 cloves (2 cloves) garlic
- 500 grams (2.1 cups) canned peeled tomatoes
- 1 scant tbsp (1 scant tbsp) dried oregano
- 4 tsp (4 tsp) sea salt
- ½ tsp (½ tsp) black pepper
Instructions
Béchamel Sauce
- Heat the milk with a sprinkling of nutmeg
- Melt the butter in a saucepan
- Add the flour slowly and mix with a whisk forming a roux
- Cook the roux over medium heat for 1 minute
- Add the hot milk and a pinch of salt, and continue stirring until the sauce becomes creamy and lump-free
- Remove from the heat and let cool, stirring occasionally to prevent it from drying up
Pizzaiola Sauce
- Thinly slice the garlic
- In a frying pan suitable for baking crush the peeled tomatoes with a fork
- Add the the finely sliced garlic, oil, pepper, salt and oregano and mix well
- Bring the tomato sauce to a boil, add the fusilli in the same tomato sauce and leave to cook for 10 minutes, stirring regularly and adding 1 cup of water. This type of cooking makes the pasta creamy thanks to the high concentration of starch that falls into the sauce
- After about 10 minutes turn off the heat and incorporate the béchamel with the pasta stirring gently. At this point adjust the salt
- Cover the pasta with meltable vegan cheese and bake in the oven for 5 minutes at 200˚C leaving the cheese to gratin well
- Before serving, let the pasta rest for 10 minutes, add a few basil leaves and a drizzle of good quality extra virgin olive oil
YouTube Video
Nutritional Values
👨🏻🍳 Tips
- How to get a creamy pasta sauce: Creaminess is usually difficult to achieve in vegan cooking - especially if you're a new vegan and you don't really know where to start. Boiling the pasta in the tomato sauce will result in a creamier sauce. This is because the pasta releases starch while boiling, and starch makes the pasta sauce creamy.
- Meal prep: This pasta is perfect for meal prep, or cooking ahead before having guests over for dinner. You can prepare the pasta bake in advance and put it in the oven just before serving. To speed up the preparation, you can even prepare the tomato sauce the day before.
- Wholegrain Sauce: for a wholegrain béchamel alternative, see our recipe for vegan béchamel sauce and sneak in some additional fibre. In addition, you can choose wholegrain pasta for a healthier overall meal.
🥫 Storage
This baked Pasta Pizzaiola made vegan can be stored in the fridge with a piece of foil or an air-tight lid on top for 2 days. It should always re-heated in the oven before serving.
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We hope you liked this creamy baked pasta pizzaiola inspired by Neapolitan cooking traditions. It's rich, creamy, cheesy, and super easy to make.
Will you be baking this pasta at home? If you have any tips or questions, we would love to hear from you in our comment section below.
Delicious! Thank you as always Nico 🙂
Glad you liked it Saff! Thanks for the comment 🙂