Pasta With Vegan White “Bolognese”

We have to confess that we’re a bit careless with the term “Bolognese“ on this blog – even though it’s one of our absolute favorite dishes. Apart from the fact that we already deviate from the original recipe anyway, because we veganize a Bolognese, we have, for example, so far wholly bypassed celery stalks in both our vegan soy “Bolognese“ and our cauliflower variant – simply because it doesn’t quite meet our taste. Yet the so-called “soffritto“ of finely diced onions, carrots, and celery is the basis of the traditional dish. At least it’s the basis we have finally followed today, but you will have noticed at first glance that this recipe is still somehow different from the Bolognese you might know. That is why it’s in quotation marks in today’s recipe.

“Ragù Bianco“ is a kind of white Bolognese – and not an invention of ours (even if it may not be too widespread). Instead of red wine, vegan white wine is used, and the tomato sauce is replaced with plant-based milk and cream. Why plant-based milk? Well, to be honest, we just wanted to test it out, but even among top Italian chefs, there's no consensus on whether or not milk even belongs in a classic Bolognese. It’s supposed to tenderize tough pieces of meat, but we don't have that problem with any vegan replacement. Still, we wanted to try whether plant-based milk makes a difference and realized that it doesn't. However, it doesn't hurt the dish either and makes the sauce a bit lighter. But if you want, you can use more vegan cream instead.

As a ground meat substitute, we used vegan “raw mince“ – if you prefer TVP ,sunflower mince, or anything else, go for it! Together with the soffritto, it is first sautéed, seasoned (here again, we deviate from the traditional Bolognese, to which no herbs come), and then simmers in the sauce until the pasta of your choice is al dente. Finally, we like to toss the latter with some of the pasta’s cooking water directly in the saucepan until everything is wonderfully creamy.