Baked Ziti with Creamy Leeks, Kale, and Sun-Dried Tomatoes (From The Complete Plant Based Cookbook by America’s Test Kitchen)

Who doesn’t love a good pasta dish? I know I love pasta! I have never made a pasta dish with a creamy leek base, so this recipe was unique to me. I really enjoyed how it turned out, but I think it needed more sauce.

This baked pasta dish had 4 main components. It had a topping, a sauce, a vegetable mix, and pasta. The topping was composed of bread crumb, vegan parmesan substitute, oil, and lemon zest. The sauce was made from leeks, wine, vegetable broth, salt, pepper, and thyme. The vegetable mix used garlic, red pepper flakes, kale, and sun dried tomatoes. I decided to use spinach in this recipe instead of kale. Once each of those components were ready, I mixed together the cooked pasta with some pasta water to the sauce and the vegetable mix. I topped with the topping and baked until the sauce was bubbling. I broiled it for about a minute to brown the topping. I served the pasta with a garnish of fresh parsley.

This dish was time consuming, but it was delicious. I really enjoyed it! I thought it was a nice change from traditional pasta dishes without sacrificing any of the beautiful flavors. I served this with some stuffed mushrooms. This dish would also be great with a salad or roasted vegetables (maybe grilled broccolini?).

Taste: 9/10

Notes for next time: This needed more sauce.