Ingredients:
- cashew cheese sauce
- raw cashews, 1.5 cups
- water, 3/4 cups
- lemon juice, 1 large lemon
- nutritional yeast, 4 tbsp
- garlic, 1 clove
- onion powder, 1/2 tsp
- salt, 1 tsp
- ziti noodles, 1 lb
- simple tomato sauce, 24 oz marinara sauce
- meat alternative, 2.5 cups optional quartered field roast sausage
- non-dairy mozzarella, 12 oz daiya
- non-dairy parmesan, 1/4 cup
- basil, to top fresh optional
Steps:
- Preheat oven to 375°F.
- Begin boiling water in a large pot for pasta.
- Soak cashews in boiling water for 5 minutes. Drain and combine with other cheese sauce ingredients in blender. Emulsify.
- Make the cashew cheese sauce recipe while water is heating.
- Lightly grease a 9x13" or two 9x6" dishes.
- Prepare pasta, drain, and add combine with marinara sauce.
- Layer half of ziti-sauce to dish(es), layer half of cheese-sauce, a layer of half the mozzarella, make the final three layers, and top with parmesan.
- Freeze (and bake frozen covered for ~90 minutes at 400°F and an additional 10 minutes uncovered) or bake fresh (uncovered for ~45 minutes at 375°F).
- Optionally, 10 minutues before baking is finished, top with fresh basil
Notes:
- Frozen bake time still being experimented with.
- Cashew cheese has consistency of a ricotta-béchamel sauce.
- Recipe can be applied to lasagna.
- Alternatively, combine pasta with cheese sauce instead of tomato. Reverse layers and add extra tomato sauce to keep noodles from drying out.
References:
