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Tomato-Sunflower Cream Pasta

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This pasta sauce is infused with roasted tomatoes, shallot and garlic combined with the sunflower cream to make a flavorful experience!
Course Mains
Keyword pasta, sunflower

Ingredients

  • 325 g tomatoes (about 7 small-medium) *
  • 250 g (8.8 oz) dried pasta *
  • ½ cup water + some for boiling pasta
  • 6 garlic cloves
  • 2 shallot
  • 2 ½ tsp olive oil
  • 1 tsp balsamic vinegar
  • ½ tsp salt
  • ½ tsp pepper
  • Sprinkle of chili flakes

Instructions

  • Preheat oven to 350 degrees
  • In a baking dish add tomatoes, shallot and garlic
  • Drizzle with 1 ½ tbsp olive oil, balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper
  • Add baking dish to the oven and allow to cook, uncovered, for 20 minutes
  • Soak your sunflower seeds by either long/quick soak method * (see notes for instructions on both)
  • Cook pasta according to the instructions (al dente)
  • Reserve ½ - 1 cup pasta water for the sauce, when you drain the pasta
  • In a large skillet, heat 1 tbsp olive oil on low flame
  • Add the roasted tomatoes, shallot and garlic (skin removed), saute for a minute
  • Add in ½ cup reserved pasta water, stir to combine
  • To a blender add soaked sunflower seeds, ¾ cup fresh water, salt, garlic powder, onion powder, lemon - blend until creamy
  • Into the skillet of pasta and sauce, add a dollop of the sunflower cream - stirring to combine *
  • Sprinkle with chili flakes
  • Cover with a lid and cook until sauce is warmed and pasta is cooked to your liking
  • Top with extra sunflower cream, chili flakes, fresh tomato and herb of choice

Notes

Any tomato will do! I like small variety tomatoes for this recipe.
Rigatoni pasta works very well for this recipe. Mine is made from rice and lentils!
Sunflower seeds:
Long soak method (best)- dissolve 1 tsp salt in 2 cups room temperature water, pour over sunflower seeds in a large bowl- cover and let sit overnight. Rinse and drain in the morning and jar until you make this recipe later in the day.
Quick soak method - 
In a small pot add 1 cup sunflower seeds and cover with 2 inches of water. Bring to a boil, then as it does -turn off the heat and allow to sit for 1 hour. Drain and rinse the seeds and they’re ready to be utilized.
*The water in both cases should be discarded after used/soak is complete.
Add a dollop of the sunflower cream to your liking when creating the pasta sauce in the final steps. I like to do one big dollop for the sauce and one big dollop for garnish.