Jill Murray
I made the Fettucine Alfonso from Joanne Stepaniak???s ???Ultimate Un-Cheese Cookbook??? because I really wanted to experiment with a bean recipe that wouldn’t taste like beans.
I will admit that this is a recipe (perhaps even an entire cookbook) that may strain the non-vegan’s suspension of disbelief for vegan cuisine, so before we get to the recipe part, let me ask you three questions.
- If there was a recipe for cream sauce that was based almost entirely on inexpensive, non-fattening, fibrous you beans and vegetables, that you could eat as much of as you wanted without even once imagining your arteries thickening with every bite, would you want to sometimes eat that instead of the usual fatty stuff you can get at any old restaurant anywhere?
- Do you like food that takes less than 15 minutes to make?
- Does this look yummy to you?
If the answer to those questions is yes, then read on. You’ve achieved the mindframe necessary to appreciate this recipe.
For the record, this recipe is like the village bicycle and since it’s already been ridden all over the internet, I have no qualms about re-publishing it here in its entirety.
“A power-packed, noble version of the classic Alfredo dish, featuring the venerable ribbon noodle. Serve with a crisp, tossed salad and fresh Italian bread, and your meal is complete.
1 ½ C. frozen corn kernels
1 ½ C. low-fat, non dairy milk or water
2 T. tahini (optional)
1 T. onion powder
1 T. garlic powder* (I, Jill, am adding this in because a pasta sauce without garlic is like… something really crucial without the something-something else that makes it worth doing, or whatever.)
1 tsp. salt
2 cups white beans, cooked (or from a can if you haven’t been paying attention)
1 lb. Fettuccine
Cracked black pepper
- Thaw the corn kernels by transferring them to a mesh strainer and placing them under hot, running tap water. Stir carefully until completely thawed, drain well, and measure.
- Place the beans, corn, milk, tahini, if using, and seasonings in a blender, and process until completely smooth. (It may take several minutes of processing to completely pulverize the corn.) Pour the blended mixture in a medium saucepan. Warm over medium-low until the beans are heated through, stirring often.
- While the sauce is heating, cook the fettuccine in a large pot of boiling water until al dente. Drain well and return to the pot. Add the sauce and toss until evenly coated.
- Serve immediately, topping each portion with a generous amount of cracked pepper.”
Since the whole “cooking” part of this recipe took no time at all, I opted to make my own pasta. Something that doesn’t get enough play in the media these days is how easy it is to make pasta if you have a pasta maker, which, now that really decent cheap knockoffs are everywhere, isn’t even an expensive device to acquire.
My pasta was of the whole-wheat & parsley variety (Just something fun to do with leftover parsley). It’s worth noting that whole wheat pasta from the box can be very depressing and cardboardy, whereas whole wheat pasta made at home is like a gift from really healthy pixies. I don’t think ambrosia is the right word, but trust me when I tell you, you gotta try it.
Pasta Drying
Servings:4 (2 now, 2 later)
Verdict: This is okayyy with fettucine, but I found it really worked best the next day over fusili with lots of vegetables. And the sauce is made with CORN! Once you get over how weird that is, its really really cool to think about.
| What it’s cost so far: | |
|---|---|
| beans | $1.27 |
| mushrooms | $2.00 |
| carrots | $1.27 |
| onion | $0.67 |
| turnip | $0.70 |
| cauliflower | $2.47 |
| garlic | $0.46 |
| TOTAL: | $9.84 |
Cumulative total servings for the whole pot ‘o beans: 15
Average cost per serving: $0.65
(Probably closer to $1.00- $1.50 with the real cost of the ingredients I already have… but still… hello… dealsville.)
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The first use of the pasta maker attachment seems to have fried the motor on my beloved Kitchen Aid mixer
Of COURSE the warranty just ran out, so I need to take it in somewhere and have it looked at. It currently only functions on it’s top two speeds (out of ten) which makes a bloody mess when you’re trying to make muffins, cookies, or anything else containing any sort of dry ingredient which gets flung all about the kitchen. I actually think it was my fault, since the recipe called for four cups of sifted flour, and I used four cups of four, sifted, which is more flour than what it probablly needed. I realized this after the fact. And I added waaaay more liquid than the recipe called for, but the dough was incredibly tough, and the poor machine worked and worked and worked to crank out sundried tomato linguini, which was awesome, so awesome that Swimmerboy kept eating it RAW.
Anyways, fresh pasta is lovely, so I need to make some repair related phone calls stat so I can get back on that program.
I’m still all over the bean thing, and lovin it.
Katie
Oh yeah… sundried tomato pasta is the best.
Sorry about your machine. That dough is pretty tough. I make mine by hand and then crank it through the pasta machine.
Your pasta looks so cute! So do you still have beans leftover? Will there be more beans entries? My cannellinis are dying to know.
That was the last of the white beans. I am onto black beans now. I’m not doing anything exceptionally creative with them so far, the black bean being so whole, so perfect, so “done” all on its own but I will continue to post beany adventures, however abbreviated.
EVERY Tuesday night we make a black bean and brown rice concoction for dinner. Tonight I took a big pot, sauteed onions, garlic, a jalapeno, red pepper, zucchini and green onions, add 2 cups cooked black beans, 1 pot of brown rice (whatever 1 cup of uncooked brown rice turned into), salt, pepper, red pepper flakes, and cumin. It’s yumm-o.
I’m off to soak some chick peas!
Jill, what’s your pasta recipe? I have a pasta roller, made pasta once, and it wasn’t great. I found a whole wheat pasta recipe online, and just tossed in some cooked spinach. Think I needed to adjust something? dunno…..
Hmm… what you’re looking for is a ratio of about 1/4 liquids to 1 cup flour.
I usually throw a bit of water with maybe a teaspoon of oil and a handfull of spinach, parsley, sundried tomatoes, basil or whatever into a blender or food processor and give that a good blend. It’s crucial that your planty materials be blended directly into the liquid.
Then I make a mound of flour on the counter, make a little bowl shape out of it, pour the liquidy stuff into the centre, blend with my hands, and knead until it’s all well incorporated.
If it’s too sticky, I add flour. Too dry, I add water. It shouldn’t stick to your hands or the counter, or the pasta machine.
Then I cut the dough into sections that will fit into the pasta maker. I cover the pieces I’m not using yet with a damp kitchen towel, so they don’t dry out while I’m pastafying the other pieces.
Then it’s over to the pasa maker for further squishing (about 10 passes through the widest setting, folding the dough in half each time, until it’s a really consistent, smooth texture, and flat, with no signs of tearing), flattening (pass it through without folding, on tighter and tighter settings until it’s as fine as you want it– I’d advise not going all the way to the lowest setting for a fettucine with a sauce as heavy as this one. You need a hardier noodle to support the weight.) and cutting.
As far as I can tell, there is absolutely no such thing as over-kneading pasta dough. The more you work it, the more the gluten is activated, which is what makes it hold together. So if your first try through the machine doesn’t work, just add flour or water as necessary, re-knead and try again, with no feelings of inadequacy whatsoever.
The only thing is to not let the dough dry out, and to get it onto some kind of drying line immediately after cutting, so it doesn’t dry all stuck together.
Jill, you are my new hero
Are the beans mashed in your sauce? I don’t seen any whole beans floting around?
I love this!
Oops, how right you are Erica. I just fixed it above.
The internet recipe is actually *slightly* different than mine and I didn’t notice at first. The one I have calls for half the beans to be pureed and half to beans to be added whole, OR for all the beans to be pureed for an entirely smooth sauce.
If you go for the entirely smooth sauce, be warned that it’s almost impossible to get the bean husks completely smooth– that’s why it’s best with veggies (or with the rest of the beans)– because then you don’t notice them.
T. mean tablespoon or teaspoon
Big “T” is a tablespoon
Little “tsp” is a teaspoon