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Vegan creamy pasta similar to "cacio e pepe". Is that even possible? Yes. And the result is an irresistible, creamy, peppery, and cheesy pasta dish that you can cook in just about 10 minutes.
In the last couple of years, vegan cheese has become such a good substitute for regular cheese, in both texture and flavour. Try it, and let us know what you think.
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What is this vegan creamy pasta?
For this vegan creamy pasta, we take inspiration from Italian "cacio e pepe", a pasta dish with humble roots and simple ingredients that has now become internationally acclaimed.
To give you a better idea, this recipe is kind of a simplified vegan version of mac and cheese. It's made with spaghetti rather than elbows, and with a light but creamy vegan cheese sauce, flavoured with some freshly ground pepper. It literally takes 3 ingredients and 10 minutes to make, just the time to boil the pasta!
For best results, you should get yourself some commercial vegan shredded cheese. I list some US and European brands in the ingredients chapter below. I order my vegan cheese shreds online once a month since my local grocery store doesn't keep it.
The first time I made this vegan creamy pasta, as a true Italian, I was very skeptical. But the recipe turned out so good, and it's so simple, that it has become a staple in our home, especially when we crave an easy and creamy pasta dish (which is at least once a week).
Ingredients and substitutions
- Pasta: you can use any pasta for this recipe. We use spaghetti to make it similar to Italian cacio e pepe, but any long or short pasta type will work. For an even creamier and yummier result, try to find a "bronze cut" pasta. It's more rugged than regular "steel cut" and it holds on to the sauce a lot better.
- Vegan shredded cheese: we use "Violife grated cheese". They are available in most countries including US, Canada, UK, Latin America, almost everywhere in Europe and more.
Other US brands that sell vegan shredded cheese are follow your heart, miyoko's, parmela, so delicious, daya, chao creamery. Another great brand available in Europe, especially Germany, is Simply-V.
We live in a small town in the heart of Italy, and the local supermarkets don't sell vegan cheese, so we make a big order online once a month, and we then freeze the cheese.
A lighter alternative to vegan shredded cheese is unsweetened soy yogurt. In this case you'll get a lighter, less creamy, but still delicious cacio e pepe style pasta dish. In this case though, you should not warm up the yogurt, but just mix it in a bowl with the hot pasta and ground black pepper.
- Black pepper: freshly ground black pepper is best.
- Water: to boil the pasta. We then use the pasta cooking water to help the cheese melt, so don't throw it out. Pasta cooking water is great because it contains the starch from the pasta, which makes the sauce even creamier.
- Salt: we use coarse salt to salt the pasta water, and a pinch or two of fine salt to season the final dish if necessary. Sea salt or kosher salt are best, but any salt will do.
How to make a vegan creamy pasta
To make sure your vegan cheese will melt perfectly, we recommend to first blend it to make it finer. This way it will look like parmesan cheese and it will melt a lot faster. Some shredded cheeses don't require this step, but to be on the safe side, we recommended.
Then, in a large pot, put the water to boil. While the water boils, on a pan on medium heat, toast the black pepper corns without any liquid. Just the pepper corns. Move them around the pan for about 3 minutes, or until you can smell the pepper aroma.
If you want, you can skip this step, and just use freshly ground pepper out of a pepper mill.
After toasting, put the pepper corns in a mortar, and crush them into dust. If you don't have a mortar, put them on your cutting board and crush them applying pressure with the bottom of a pan.
The pasta water should now be boiling. Salt it with the coarse salt, then put in the pasta and let cook for 4 minutes less than indicated on the pasta package.
If the pasta package says 12 minute, then you cook it for 8. We finish cooking the pasta with the cheese sauce, so that it will release starch in it, making the sauce even creamier.
While the pasta cooks, add the vegan cheese and 2 ladles of the pasta cooking water to a large pan. Melt the cheese on low heat, stirring quickly with a wooden spoon. After a minute or so, your vegan cheese should be completely melted.
Now add the crushed pepper to the cheese. Keep stirring on low heat for another minute. Then turn off the heat, but keep stirring occasionally, we don't want the cheese to become too dense. If necessary, add an extra dash of pasta cooking water to keep the cheese to a creamy consistency.
When the pasta is ready, take it out of the water and put it in the pan with the cheese sauce. Make sure to save the pasta water, as we need it to finish cooking the pasta.
Add 1 ladle of pasta water to the pan, then on medium to low heat, finish cooking the pasta with the cheese sauce, until the pasta is al dente - that is, cooked but with a bite to it. Add more pasta water if the sauce becomes too thick.
Your pasta should now be completely coated in the cheese sauce, and it's ready to be portioned.
Serve in little (or big) swirls on a plate, and drizzle with some extra cheese sauce on top, and a sprinkle of ground black pepper.
Tips
- Undercook the pasta by 4 minutes. We do this because we want to finish cooking the spaghetti in the pan with the cheese sauce. This way, the pasta will release starch into the sauce, making it even creamier.
- Melt the vegan cheese with the pasta cooking water so that the salt in the pasta water will add some sapidity to the vegan cheese. Vegan cheese is generally less salty than regular Italian parmesan or pecorino, so we need the extra help of the salt in the cooking water to add saltiness.
- Toast the black pepper whole. In asian cooking people do this all the time. They toast their spices, whole, before grinding them and using them to flavour their curries. Here we apply the same technique to make our pepper extra aromatic. Warm it up on a pan without any liquid to warm up its oils and release all its aroma.
- Save the pasta water when draining the pasta. Pasta water is full of starch and it will make our sauce creamier.
Frequently asked questions
Yes. Italian dry pasta is 100% vegan because it's made only with two plant-based ingredients: semolina (hard-wheat) flour, and water.
Yes. You can use any pasta shape for vegan creamy pasta recipe. We used spaghetti because we wanted to make it similar to Italian cacio e pepe.
Have you tried online? If you still can find it, then you can use unsweetened soy yogurt. In this case though, cook the pasta al dente, then add it to a bowl, and mix in 3 to 4 tbsps of unsweetened soy yogurt, a drizzle of olive oil, and the black pepper. Mix well, and serve.
Storage
This vegan creamy pasta doesn't store well, since the spaghetti and cheese is mixed together, and the pasta will overcook if reheated.
If you have left overs, keep it for max 12 hours in an airtight container in the fridge. Reheat on a pan with some water for about 1 minute, and add a pinch of freshly ground pepper.
Cacio e Pepe pasta should be reheated only once, or else will turn into a mushy consistency.
Variations
If you liked our Spaghetti cacio e pepe, you might also like these delicious Italian Pastas dishes:
1. Vegan Pasta with Chestnut Pesto: a spaghetti dish with 3 iconic Italian ingredients: la castagna (chestnut), la nocciola (hazelnut), and bronze cut spaghetti. It's cozy, creamy, cheesy, and earthy. What do you think?
2. Penne all'arrabbiata: penne all'arrabbiata is one of the most popular pasta dishes of Italy. It's simple, yet delicious, and naturally vegan, made only with a few healthy ingredients.
3. Pasta Aglio e Olio: simple and yet so fulfilling and delicious. It brings to together the main elements of Italian cuisine: simplicity, creativity and comfort. No one can resist this.
4. Pasta al Pomodoro: a traditional Italian recipe made with easy-to-find and simple ingredients. It becomes a creamy spaghetti dish, full of umami, when we mix the pasta with a hearty tomato sauce with notes of garlic and fresh basil.
5. Easy and Creamy Vegan Carbonara: an easy and creamy Pasta Carbonara, ready in less than 30 minutes. No eggs, meat and cheese involved!
Recipe
Vegan creamy pasta
Ingredients
- 300 grams (10.6 oz) spaghetti
- 150 grams (5.3 oz) vegan shredded cheese
- 1 tbsp black pepper corns you can use more or less based on your taste preference
- 3 litres (¾ gal) water to cook the pasta
- 2 tbsp coarse sea salt to salt the pasta water
- 1 pinch salt if your vegan cheese is not salty enough
Instructions
- BEFORE YOU START: if your vegan cheese is grated coarsly we recommend to blitz it up in a blender to make it finer, looking like grated parmesan cheese.
- In a large pot, put the water to boil. Then on a pan on medium heat, toast the black pepper corns without any liquid. Just the pepper corns. Move them around the pan for about 3 minutes, or until you can smell the pepper aroma.
- Then put the in a mortar, and crush them into dust. If you don't have a mortar, put them on your cutting board and crush them applying pressure with the bottom of a pan.
- The pasta water should now be boiling. Salt it with the corase sea salt, then put in the pasta and let cook for 4 minutes less than indicated on the pasta package. If the pasta package says 12 minute, then you cook it for 8. We finish cooking the pasta witht the cheese sauce, so that it will release starch in it, making the sauce even creamier.
- In a large pan, add the vegan cheese and 2 ladles of the pasta cooking water. Melt the cheese on low heat, stirring quickly with a wooden spoon. After a minute or so, your vegan cheese should be completely melted.
- Now add the crushed pepper to the cheese. Keep stirring on low heat for another minute. Then turn off the heat, but keep stirring occasionally, we don't want the cheese to become too dense. If necessay, add an extra dash of pasta cooking water to keep the cheese to a creamy consistency.
- When the pasta is ready, take it out of the water and put it in the pan with the cheese sauce. Make sure to save the pasta water, as we need it to finish cooking the pasta.
- Add 1 ladle of pasta water to the pan, then on medium to low heat, finish cooking the pasta with the cheese sauce, until the pasta is al dente - that is, cooked but with a bite to it. Add more pasta water if the sauce becomes too thick.
- Your pasta should now be completely coated in the cheese sauce, and it's ready to be portioned.
- Serve in little swirls on a plate, and drizzle with some extra cheese sauce on top, and a sprinkle of the ground black pepper.
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