This Date Night Pasta comes together in less than 30 minutes and is loaded with flavour! It’s made with burst tomatoes, sautéed shiitake mushrooms and garlic in a creamy, inviting pasta!
Hands up who has had a consistent date night every week? Okay, if your hand went up, serious kudos to you. This is something that if I’m being honest, we struggle with over in our household. Work kinda consumes like 90% of my life (the other 10% is split between Netflix and family and friends, ya know). However, whenever we are away from home, we really make an effort. In fact, we’ve been three times in two weeks which is a NEW record (including a vegan brunch!).
There are a ton of reasons why date night doesn’t happen. But when it does, I always feel so much happier and lighter. So while I can’t list all the reasons date night can’t happen, I can list one that it can: this Date Night Burst Tomato, Mushroom and Garlic Creamy Pasta.
Okay, I kid you not we timed this and it did NOT even take 30 minutes. I made it on the fly for an impromptu dinner and with one bite, Gavin was sold. He wanted me to tell him exactly how I made it, because he kinda needed this in his life forever. Fast forward to now and it’s my go to for a quick dinner/impromptu date night. That’s the magical thing about date night: you don’t need to have it outside of the house. We usually throw a tablecloth over the table, put on some cute clothes, and sometimes even light a candle.
Okay, the candle part was a joke, but really, you could easily do that. It’s all about making that night super special for the both of you. It doesn’t have to last hours or cost lots of of money, but it does have to be delicious.
This Date Night Burst Tomato, Mushroom and Garlic Creamy Pasta (don’t you love that name?) achieves just that. Honestly, I would so go all out on the best vegan ingredients that you can find for this. Quality matters when you have such powerful ingredients shining through. We went for the best organic tomatoes, shiitake mushrooms and pasta we could find. I’m talking the fancy bronze drawn pasta so it “binds perfectly with the sauce“. It’s date night, after all.
With some amazing ingredients, a little bit of work, and lots of love, your stay in date night dreams can come true. Bonus points? Two pots to wash, two plates, and maybe two wine glasses. Happy Date Night Eating!
Date Night Burst Tomato, Mushroom and Garlic Creamy Pasta
Ingredients
- 1/2 lb Shiitake mushrooms, cleaned, sliced and stems removed
- 1 cup similarly sized grape tomatoes (I love to get a colour assortment)
- 8 ounces Pasta, linguine or tagliatelle
- 2 tablespoons vegan butter
- 3 cloves garlic, minced or finely chopped
- 1/2 teaspoon sea salt and ¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
- 2-3 tablespoons vegan cream cheese
- 2 tablespoons vegan parmesan, grated
- 3/4 cup Pasta water
- 1 tablespoon freshly chopped basil
- ½ tablespoon olive oil (the best kind you can get)
Instructions
- Bring a large salted pot of water to a boil. Cook pasta according to package directions to al dente. Reserve 3/4 cup of the pasta water.
- In a pan over medium high heat, heat the vegan butter. Add the garlic, tomatoes and shiitake mushrooms, stirring together. Cook for about 5-6 minutes, until the mushrooms are sautéed down and the tomatoes are looking slightly wilted and ready to burst. Using your spatula or wooden spoon, gently press on each tomato to slightly burst it. Lower the heat to medium low and in the sea salt and the ground black pepper. Stir to combine.
- Stir in the cream cheese, vegan parmesan and ¼ cup of the pasta water. Stir gently but swiftly to combine.
- Add in the pasta, then the rest of the reserved pasta water ¼ cup of the time, stirring to combine and create a creamy sauce. The pasta will soak up most of the water, while thickening the sauce.
- Taste the sauce and add more sea salt or black pepper if desired.
- Turn off the heat, top with basil and drizzle the olive oil over. Serve the pasta with extra vegan parmesan on top. Enjoy!
Notes
- Like I said – use the best ingredients that you can find for these! Fresh and organic is always best and will shine through!
- If you’re gluten free, just use gluten free pasta!
- The longer you let the pasta sit, the more pasta water you may need to keep the sauce creamy.
by Jessica
Greetings, Jessica – it’s Jessica from DC! I LUV this recipe! Pasta is always a quick go-to for me. It’s usually quick, and it’s filling! In fact, this reminds me of how I first found your blog & recipes – it was your garlic focaccia bread! I was so impressed that I was able to bake FRESH, TASTY, lick-your-fingers, VEGAN bread FROM SCRATCH! You had me from there! And then, of course, your name being Jessica – it was meant to be! I am also commenting to congratulate you on being in the recent Essence.com article on 5 Female Food Bloggers folks need to know. I was SO HAPPY when I got to #5 and saw YOU. In fact, I didn’t even read what they had to say about you cuz I was so excited to see you – I went straight to your site and wrote this comment! Congrats! and I know many more wonderful things are coming your way!