There's a great new Italian place, Amici, near my local wine shop. Because I usually go straight from work to the weekly wine tasting, I often grab dinner there. They don't have too much in the way of vegetarian dishes, but what they do have is fabulous. (Pizza with caramelized onions, roasted garlic, and fresh arugula? Yes please!)
One of my favorite dishes there is their Spaghetti alla Aurora. It's their own spin on classic aurora sauce, which is basically creamy tomato sauce, named for its color. Amici makes theirs with garlic and chilis. It's divine (I don't share!), but I wondered whether it could be done vegetarian, with what I had on hand. Whole grain linguine was on sale, so I had a box of it on hand. We also have garlic, an onion that needed eating, and some chilis and basil from the garden. I also have almond milk lying around.
I started out by pouring the remains of a carton of almond milk into a saucepan. I had about 1/3 to 1/2 a carton left. Do not use chocolate or vanilla flavored for this recipe. Unsweetened is good here, but if you don't have it, the world will not end. I added five large cloves of pressed and peeled garlic, a thick slice of peeled onion, two small red chilis (prick them a few times), and a handful of fresh basil. Bring that to a boil, then let it simmer about fifteen minutes. I then took it off the heat, covered the pan, and left it to steep for half an hour.
Melt 2 T. of vegan margarine in another small saucepan. Add 2 T. of flour and stir until smooth. Strain in the milk mixture, and whisk over medium heat until it thickens. If it gets too thick, add a bit more almond milk. If it gets too thin, mash equal parts margarine and flour into a smooth paste and add that. I mixed in some chili flakes and 2 T. nutritional yeast. At this point, you'd normally mix in some tomato puree to give it a lovely color. I did not have any on hand, so I used the last of the tomato paste I had on hand, as well as some tomato sauce that we had in the cupboard.
Toss with pasta.
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