Hi, I'm Becky Striepe from Glue & Glitter,
and today, we're gonna make some pasta.
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All of these pasta dishes are super easy to make.
They're simple dinners that you can throw together
even on a weeknight.
They range in cooking times a little bit,
so choose your own adventure based on how much time you have
and what you have in the fridge and the pantry.
Let's start with Red Pepper Pesto.
This dish is super easy to make.
It's definitely the quickest of the bunch.
You can make the sauce in the time that it takes
for the pasta to boil.
Get that pasta cooking
and then, pull out your blender
and add some drained roasted red peppers.
You can just use them straight from a jar.
If you wanna roast your own red peppers, you can.
Just know that that's gonna up
the cooking time significantly.
Then, add some fresh basil,
some roasted salted cashews, and some olive oil.
Yes, you need the oil.
This is a pesto and pesto usually includes oil.
Then, add some fresh garlic
and a little bit of nutritional yeast.
The purpose of the nutritional yeast
is to replace the Parmesan cheese that you would use
in a traditional pesto.
It gives that same cheesy flavor without using cheese.
You can omit the nutritional yeast if you want.
The sauce is just gonna end up a little bit thinner
than it would have without it,
and it won't have that cheesy undertone.
Then, add a little bit of balsamic vinegar.
Usually, pastas use lemon juice for the acid
and I'm using balsamic vinegar instead.
It gives a really nice sweet, robust taste
that plays really well with the red pepper.
I highly recommend it.
Now, you're ready to blend.
By now, your pasta should be done cooking
so transfer it to your serving bowl
and then, pour on the pureed pesto
and toss in some sliced black olives.
You can also toss in some cooked veggies of your choice
if you want to.
I like to do broccoli with this or sometimes spinach.
You do whatever you want
depending on what you have in the fridge
and what you are feeling that night.
Once you do that, you're ready to serve.
I like to serve this
with a sprinkle of my magical fairy dust.
If you've never made my magical fairy dust, it's super easy.
It's also a blender recipe.
Takes just a few minutes to make and it's great
on top of all kinds of pasta dishes, pizzas, salads.
We've put it on everything.
Up next is a Spaghetti Casserole.
Casseroles by nature take a little bit longer
because you do have to bake them,
but you don't have to be there during that baking time.
The actual active cooking time for this recipe
is very, very short.
You're going to start by boiling your spaghetti
and you're actually going to boil it together
with a drained can of chickpeas.
This'll save you some time because the chickpeas will soften
and cook while the pasta cooks.
While the pasta is cooking,
prepare your kale and put it into your colander.
That way, you can just pour the spaghetti
and chickpea mixture right into the colander
on top of the kale.
The hot, boiling water plus the heat from the pasta
is gonna wilt the kale perfectly for this recipe
so you don't even have to saute or steam the kale.
You're gonna cook it using just that pasta cooking water.
It's instant.
Grab yourself a large glass baking dish
and stick a pat of vegan butter in there.
You can use olive oil instead if you don't do vegan butter
and then, just toss in that hot pasta-kale-chickpea mixture.
Sprinkle on a generous amount of Italian seasoning
and garlic powder.
Then, toss it all together.
Top it off with vegan cheese shreds.
I like to use mozzarella, and sometimes,
I even throw on a little bit of vegan Parmesan too.
Make sure you spread the cheese out evenly
and then, you're ready to bake.
Bake it for 20 minutes at 350 and dinner is served.
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Up next is Spinach-Artichoke Pasta.
This is another recipe where you can get the sauce together
in the time it takes the pasta to cook,
so get your pasta cooking.
I used Rigatoni,
but you can use whatever kind of pasta you like.
And then, it's time to make the sauce.
Start by soaking cashews in hot water for 10 to 15 minutes.
Once the cashews are soaked,
drain off that water and discard it
and then, transfer the soaked cashews to your blender
along with a 1/2 cup of water, three cloves of garlic.
As you can see in the video, the garlic is minced.
You do not have to pre-mince this garlic.
That's actually minced garlic from a jar
I used in equivalent of three cloves.
If you have a head of garlic though,
you can just pop three cloves in to the blender.
No problem.
Then, add some lemon juice and puree that until it's smooth.
By now, your pasta should be done cooking
and you can actually just transfer it right back
to the pot that you cooked it in once you have drained it.
Pour the garlic cashew cream over the top of the pasta
and then, add a thawed bag of frozen spinach
and a drained can of sliced artichoke hearts
and toss that all together.
Once you've tossed the pasta and sauce and veggies together,
I like to put the pan back on the stove
and over medium-low heat,
just kind of stir the pasta until it's warmed back through,
but you can actually serve this up at room temperature
and it's still delightful.
Up next, let's make some Vegan Baked Ziti.
This baked ziti uses homemade vegan ricotta,
but don't worry.
It's super easy to make.
Before you start layering things into your casserole,
you wanna boil two cups of dried ziti
and then, set that cooked ziti aside
so it'll be ready to layer on when it's time.
Start by crumbling a block of extra-firm tofu into a bowl,
and then, add some olive oil, lemon juice,
nutritional yeast, Italian seasoning,
and garlic and onion powder.
Mix that well and then, set it aside,
and your tofu ricotta is ready to go.
Now grab an eight by eight inch glass pan
and pour tomato sauce or pizza sauce onto the bottom.
So, spread that tomato sauce around
because that's what's going to prevent your pasta
from sticking to the bottom.
Now, layer on half of the cooked ziti
and then, you'll add a 12-ounce package of vegan meatballs
that you've cooked according to the package directions.
I cooked mine in the air fryer,
but you do whatever works best for you.
Now, it's time to layer on that tofu ricotta
and spread it so that it covers everything pretty evenly.
And then, add a layer of vegan mozzarella cheese
and spread that around too.
Then, add another 1/2 cup of tomato sauce
and spread that around as well as you can.
Now, you're ready to layer on the rest of the ziti
and top it off with whatever sauce you have left.
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Then, top it all off with the rest of your vegan mozzarella
and a sprinkling of my magical fairy dust.
If you don't wanna make magical fairy dust,
you can also use vegan Parmesan cheese in its place,
but this fairy dust is amazing y'all.
The recipe makes way more than you'll use in this ziti
and you'll be glad to have it around the house.
Then, toss this in the oven for 30 minutes at 350
and you're ready to eat.
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I hope that this video has inspired you
to make some pasta for supper tonight.
If you have any questions about any of the recipes
that I showed in the video today,
feel free to drop them below.
I'm always happy to help.
And don't forget to rate and subscribe.
Happy cooking!
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