Ingredients

1 15-ounce can of plain tomato sauce (we use the one from Costco)
1/2 cup raw cashews (we use the ones from Costco)
Salt and pepper to taste (optional)

Vodka variation

1 – 2 Tablespoons vodka in addition to above ingredients (unlike beer and wine, hard liquor is generally vegan as there is no need or use for animal products in distilling hard liquor)

Directions

Ready?

Put the tomato sauce and the cashews in a high-speed blender and blend it until thick and creamy, and warm to the touch (you don’t have to cook this sauce, it heats in the blender!).

If making the vodka tomato cream sauce, add the vodka in at the end. Note: This sauce will have as much alcohol as does the vodka that you add to it. But that is not because it is not cooked. That cooking removes most of the alcohol is largely a myth unless you are going to cook whatever it is you are cooking for a Very Long Time. Yes, we know that you grew up believing that the alcohol evaporates or bakes off, so did we. We were all fed a bill of goods, likely by the alcohol industry (who certainly knew and knows better). According to the USDA, says the Food Network, “alcohol that is simmered or baked as part of dish for 15 minutes will retain 40-percent of its alcohol content. After one hour of cooking, 25-percent will remain. To get down to single digits (5-percent) requires approximately 2.5 hours of cooking time.”

Once you have your straight or boozy sauce fully blended, pour it over freshly cooked pasta and whatever else you’d like. As you can see from our picture, we like to add mushrooms and peas. 🙂