I got a surprise lately.  Apparently while I was in university I made a lasagna.  It was a veggie lasagna (my friends remember what they call my veggie phase with little or no fondness).  It was good.  It was made with nuts instead of meat.  Think of nuts as the meat replacer.  I'm saying 'apparently' because I have no recollection whatsoever of this dish.  It sounds good and both my friends remembered having it and remembered liking it a lot.  But me... I don't remember a thing.  I remember this zucchini dish that I made which I really liked.  I remember lending out the recipe book that contained the zucchini recipe.  I remember never getting that book back and not remembering the recipe with enough exactness to replicate it.  And I remember being sad about it.  I don't remember the nut lasagna.
In fact, to my mind nuts were never in my savoury dish repertoire.  They were quite present in the sweets/dessert genre but that's it.  It's cool to be reminded that at some point long long ago I used nuts in a dish that didn't contain large quantities of sugar.
Well, I wish that I had not forgotten how wonderful using nuts in savoury dishes can be.  The silver lining is that it's been like a whole new discovery over the last year or so.  I've used peanut sauce for chicken and stir fries.  I've put ground cashews in chicken tikka (my fam is still raving about that chicken recipe).  This pasta recipe is being added to the nut list and it was good, really good.


It's not really pesto.  I'm not sure why I called it that.  I guess that because I ground some stuff up in the blender and I used a nut (not a pine nut mind you) it brought pesto to mind.  However, if you had some fresh basil to throw into the nut/parmesan thing that would be awesome too.


This little 'nut' experiment turned out to be a great mid-week dinner option.  I like that it's veggie.  I like that it's a great way to use kale in an out of the ordinary kind of way.  I like that it's pasta and it feels substantial.
Having been reminded of my nut lasagna I'm going searching tonight... for a nutty lasagna recipe... 'cause Damn, it sounds good.


Kale and Cashew Pesto Pasta Bake
serves 4 as a main course

2 cups cashews (or a mix or pinenut, walnut, cashew... whatever)
3/4 cups parmesan cheese, grated
2 cups cream
1/2 cup reserved pasta water
2 veggie bouillion cubes (dissolve in the reserved pasta water)
1/2 cup grated cheese (cheddar or something stronger if you wish)
4 cups cooked pasta (rotini or penne), reserve some of the pasta water
1 bunch Kale (diced to very fine, feathery bits)
1 small onion, sliced
1 rib celery, diced
1 lg clove garlic, crushed
2 cups button mushrooms (or mushroom of choice)
salt to taste
1 tbsp oregano
1 tbsp basil
dash of pepper sauce (just cause)
1 tbsp of brown sugar (or honey)

Blend or puree together the cashews (or whatever), about 1/2 a cup of the parmesan and a little bit of the pasta water (enough to make a good paste).
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.  Get a medium to large sized baking dish ready.
Saute the onion and celery on medium heat until the onions are becoming clear and the celery is browning just a little.  Add in the garlic and the mushrooms.  Saute for another 6 minutes or so.  Add in the Kale and cook until wilted.
Turning the heat down to low add the cashew puree, cream, bouillion cubes and grated cheese to the veggies and heat through.  Stir well so that nothing gets stuck to the pan.  Add the oregano, basil, sugar and pepper sauce (optional).  Check the taste and add salt if needed.
Toss the pasta into the veggie sauce.  Pour the whole thing into the baking dish.  Top with the remaining parmesan and bake for about 30 minutes or until the top is golden and bubbly.
Cool for a few minutes before serving.