Check out our best pasta recipe collection! Combing tofu and pasta is an easy and effective way to get a fulfilling and nourishing vegan meal, with plenty of protein, in little time. Also, it’s easy to make tofu taste great with a few simple ingredients, which is fantastic as we always try to keep things simple in our kitchen.
Ingredients
Instructions
We like to keep this tofu pasta dish dairy-free, so we don’t add any parmesan cheese or butter. Also, the sauce is pretty flavorful on its own and doesn’t require much on top, except for maybe a couple of fresh basil leaves. If you like chewier tofu, then I’d recommend following the oven-baked method (I personally prefer this one). The tofu is crumbled, then baked in the oven for 15 minutes till it gets chewy, and finally added to the tomato sauce. It stays crispier, and it doesn’t taste much like tofu. If you like a softer tofu bolognese, I’d recommend making the pan-fried method (Louise prefers this one). The tofu is crumbled, then cooked with the sauce in the pan. It gets a lot softer this way, and you can taste the tofu a little more. Both ways are delicious, and we are sure you’ll love tofu pasta cooked this way because it’s healthy, tasty, and incredibly fulfilling. Soy sauce: to add flavor and umami to both the tofu and the tomato sauce. Seriously, adding a dash of soy sauce to any vegan tomato sauce is our favorite trick to make the sauce extra tasty. We use reduced-sodium soy sauce. Flavor base: like in the Italian bolognese sauce, we use extra virgin olive oil, onion, celery, and carrot to make the flavor base for this sauce. Gently frying these 3 vegetables together in a little olive oil for just 5 minutes adds flavor. If you are on an oil-free diet, no worries. You can fry these veggies in a dry pan without oil, on low heat, for a couple of minutes. The natural oils in the vegetables will be enough to prevent the vegetables from sticking to the pan. We often do it like this when trying to eat less oil.Herbs and spices: not much is required for this sauce, and we only use fresh basil and garlic powder. If you like to spice things up, add some red pepper flakes, smoked paprika, minced garlic, or crushed garlic cloves. Other herbs that go well with this sauce are oregano, thyme, bay leaves, and parsley.Salt and black pepper. Preheat the oven to 390F or 200C. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Crumble the tofu with your hands and into a bowl. Don’t crumble it too fine. If there are some small chunks, it’s ok. Add soy sauce, salt, pepper, and garlic powder. Mix with a spoon, then transfer onto the baking sheet. Spread across the baking tray and bake for 15 minutes, moving it around halfway through. In the meantime, make the sauce. Gently fry the veggies in oil for 5 minutes on medium-low heat. Stir them around often. Add canned tomatoes, soy sauce, salt, and black pepper. If you like to add other spices, this is the right time to do it. Stir and let simmer on medium to low heat for 15 to 20 minutes. Taste and adjust for salt. The sauce should be rich and tasty. In the meantime cook the pasta.
Cook pasta
Boil the pasta in plenty of salted boiling water as per package directions. Pasta should be served al dente, and the water should be salted for best results. I’d recommend cooking the pasta only when you are almost done with the tofu sauce so that you won’t risk overcooking it.
Mix in baked tofu and serve
When the tofu is done baking, add it to the sauce. Stir in and let simmer for just one more minute. Turn the heat off, add fresh basil or chopped parsley if you like, and serve on your favorite pasta. If you want to give it a little cheese taste but still keep it vegan, then try adding some vegan parmesan cheese (we make it with almonds and nutritional yeast) or some crumbled vegan ricotta on top (we make it with soy milk, and it’s delicious on top of any tomato sauce).
Serving suggestions
There are two ways of serving this tofu bolognese with pasta. First: drain the pasta, portion it into a serving plate, and add a few tablespoons of tofu sauce on top. That’s the simplest, no-fuss way. You can add some fresh basil, a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil, or some vegan parmesan on top. Second: drain the pasta when very “al dente” and add it to the pan with the sauce. Add a ladleful of reserved pasta cooking water to the pan and finish cooking the pasta, in the sauce, for a minute or two. This requires a little more time, but the final result is delicious. This tofu bolognese sauce is not only delicious on pasta but also on rice, couscous, and gnocchi for instance. You’ll love it that way. You can also just add it to vegetables (Louise always puts it on top of boiled broccoli, potatoes, and sweet potatoes).
Variations
Pan-fried tofu bolognese
As I mentioned before, if you don’t want to oven-bake the tofu, you can easily pan-fry it. The tofu will be softer this way.To start, fry the chopped onion, celery, and carrot in olive oil for about 3 minutes, then add crumbled tofu to the pan with the veggies. Don’t crumble the tofu too fine, as it will break down a little in the sauce. Add 2 tablespoons of soy sauce, 1/2 teaspoon of salt, and a few twists of black pepper, and keep frying the tofu with the vegetables for 5 minutes. Now add the canned tomatoes, stir, and simmer on medium-low heat for about 15 minutes.
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Questions
Storage
I’d recommend storing the sauce separately from the pasta. Tofu bolognese keeps for up to 3 days in an airtight container in the refrigerator. You can also freeze the sauce for up to 3 months.
Tofu pasta with veggies
Add some of your favorite veggies to this tofu pasta. Try with zucchini, mushrooms, eggplant, olives, and even kale. Chop your vegetable of choice in small dice, then add it to the pan with the fried onion, carrot, and celery. Season with salt and pepper, and sauté the veggies for about 5 to 10 minutes, until their cooking water evaporates. When the pan is dry, add the canned tomatoes and soy sauce, and let simmer for another 15 minutes until the sauce is rich and tasty. Use a large skillet in this case, as the veggies take up more space than our base recipe.
tofu cacciatore (kind of like chicken cacciatore but vegan)easy fried tofu (crisp diced tofu, perfect with salads or on top of anything, really)vegan fish (super simple oven-baked tofu that looks and tastes like fish)tofu with mushrooms (quick pan-fried tofu in creamy mushroom sauce)orange tofu (Asian inspired tofu in a sticky sweet and sour orange sauce)tofu soup (seriously the easiest, tastiest tofu soup you’ll ever make)
For many more pasta ideas, check out our pasta category page.
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