If you have a dairy allergy or avoid dairy in your diet, you can still enjoy creamy pastas. I have become a fan of making pasta sauces using white beans and cooking them down until they naturally melt into a creamy sauce. White beans go well with a number of herbs and spices and complement most vegetables and proteins. This recipe is loaded with bright acidic flavor, allowing the starchy beans to balance the acid from the tomatoes and lemon, making a hearty pasta dish that doesn’t feel too rich or heavy. Rather than cooking the tomatoes in the bean sauce, the recipe quickly “stews” the tomatoes in a separate pan to add on top of the pasta when ready to serve, allowing the eater to decide how much tomato they want in each bite. The bean sauce thickens from the natural starches of the beans and the addition of pasta water. Enjoy this vegan pasta on a cold day or mild summer night. 

White Bean Pasta with Lemony Tomatoes
Serves 4-6

Ingredients
1 pound conchiglie, farfalle, or rotini pasta
½ cup olive oil, divided
12 ounces cherry tomatoes, halved lengthwise
1 small white onion, diced
6 cloves of garlic, minced
2 15.5-ounce cans cannellini beans, drained
Salt and ground black pepper, to taste
¼ teaspoon dried rosemary
½ teaspoon dried oregano
¼ teaspoon dried thyme
1 lemon, zest and juice 

Direction 

1. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add pasta and cook according to package instructions. 
2. Meanwhile, in a small sauté pan, heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil over medium-high heat. Add tomatoes, then season with salt and black pepper and cook until tomatoes have broken down and sauce thickens, stirring occasionally. Turn heat off and stir in lemon zest. Leave on the stovetop until ready to serve. 
3. In a medium dutch oven, heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil over medium heat. Add onions, then season with salt and black pepper and cook until translucent and tender, about 2-3 minutes. 
4. Add garlic and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds. 
5. Add rosemary, oregano, and thyme and stir to incorporate. Add remaining olive oil (4 tablespoons) and stir. 
6. Add beans and stir to incorporate onion mixture. Lower heat to medium-low and cook, stirring occasionally to naturally break down beans and thicken sauce. 
7. About 5 minutes before pasta is done cooking, add 1 cup of pasta water to the bean sauce and stir. Continue to cook, tasting the sauce and adjusting seasoning as needed. Lower heat to low and simmer until pasta is done cooking. 
8. Once pasta is cooked, drain and add to sauce. Stir to fully coat pasta with sauce. Add lemon juice and stir, then remove from heat. 
9. Ladle pasta into bowls, top pasta with a few spoonfuls of tomatoes and garnish with parsley if desired. Serve with garlic bread.

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