Rigatoni with Roasted Garlic White Sauce

Vegan Mom and I used to make a cream-based white sauce and served it over tortellini. It used to be a standard, actually. For some reason I was thinking it about it today, and decided to create something like it for tonight's dinner. We didn't have any tortellini (I'm pretty sure tortellini dough has egg in it anyway), so I went with what we did have: rigatoni. The sauce turned out rather well--smooth, creamy, and full of that smoky roasted garlic flavour.

INGREDIENTS:

- 1 head of garlic

- 1/4 cup margarine

- 1 small yellow onion, diced

- 1 red onion, diced

- 1 green pepper, seeded and diced

- 4 generous tbsp flour

- 1 pkg firm silken tofu, dabbed dry

- 4 cups plain soy milk

- 3/4 cup nutritional yeast

- 1/4 tsp nutmeg

- freshly ground white pepper, to taste

- salt, to taste

METHOD

1. Separate cloves of garlic from the head, but do not peel. Dry roast in a small pan over medium heat for about 10-12 mins, turning regularly to keep from burning, until soft. Cool and peel.

2. While garlic is roasting, melt margarine in a large saucepan over medium heat. Saute onions for 5 mins. Add green pepper and saute for 10 mins.

3. Place garlic gloves, tofu, and soy milk in a juice pitcher. Blend until very smooth with an immersion blender.

4. Add flour to onions and peppers, and mix well. Slowly pour in tofu mixture, stirring constantly. Bring to bubbling.

5. Stir in nutritional yeast, add nutmeg, and season to taste with salt and pepper.

6. Serve over hot cooked rigatoni.