Friday nights are often pasta night here at the Blackmon house, as we typically have long runs on Saturday mornings. I’m actually not one to believe carbo-loading is necessary, but it gets to be a habit and we just enjoy pasta! The funny thing is we actually met my parents out for dinner tonight, but I wanted to be sure you still tonight’s VeganizeIt meal as scheduled – so we’ll be enjoying this dinner another night! :)
Tonight’s creation is Baked Ziti, created by Allison Rivers Samson and originally published in her (2011 Award winning) VegNews Magazine column, “VeganizeIt!”.
Preparation of this pasta steps is a bit more labor intensive than I typically like my pasta dishes. Save yourself some time and remember to pre-soak the macadamia nuts the night before. I had originally hoped to cook the pasta last night, but this step tripped me up and set me back an extra day (always pre-read recipes, rookie mistake on my part!). None of this recipe is difficult, it just takes some time to allow the tomato sauce to simmer adequately (45 minutes total) and then baking the combined dish (30 minutes). I would say a total of 1:30 from start to finish, including chopping of the ingredients (but minus the pre-soaking of the nuts).
The macadamia nuts were the main ingredient in this ricotta cheese sub – look at how beautiful this turned out!
After mixing together the tomato sauce, ricotta, and cream sauces – into the oven for 30 minutes. Out of the oven, this looks like a classic Italian Ziti:
I sliced this up into 6 servings immediately, quick photo session, then Kirk and I sampled the goods:
Flavor on this was good – much like the original. This isn’t a stand-out meal to me, but it’s a good hearty option, good flavor, and packed with nutritional value. I love that this includes two different kinds of nuts – one for the ricotta & one for the cream sauce. Pasta doesn’t really have that sexy look on the plate, but this is a solid recipe.
On a side note – I am feeling MUCH better than yesterday! I think the massive quantities of Vitamin C, lots of healthy veggies, and lots of water are doing their thing. I usually feel worse on day 2 of a cold, so something I did definitely made a difference. Thanks for the well wishes!
Question of the Day – Do you have a favorite meal the night before a “big” workout or training session?
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