I haven't made very many curries out of the "contemporary" chapter of 660 Curries. Usually I find something I like in one of the earlier chapters and never make it that far. But I decided to start leafing through from the back the other day and spotted this pasta. The mention of dill in the title caught my eye since we still have a bunch to use up.

I actually doubled the dill and halved the oil called for and I think that worked out quite well! And the fact that I'd just happened to pick up a package of dry-packed sun-dried tomatoes a couple of days ago was extra-serindipitous.

Pasta with Cashew-Dill Cream Sauce

Slightly adapted from 660 Curries by Raghavan Iyer

Ingredients

• 225g short pasta (penne, rotini, cavitapi, etc.)
• 1/2 c. dry-packed sun-dried tomatoes
• 1 Tbsp. olive oil
• 1/4 c. raw cashews
• 3-5 dried red Thai, cayenne, or arbol chilies
• 1 c. half-and-half (or whole milk for the calorie-conscious)
• 6-7 cloves garlic, minced
• 4 c. firmly packed fresh spinach
• 1/2 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 1/2 c. chopped fresh dill

Directions

1. Bring a pot of water to a boil and add the pasta.
2. Boil pasta until al dente, reserve 1 c. of the cooking water, and drain the rest.
3. Rinse the pasta with cold water and set aside.
4. Pour the reserved pasta cooking water over the tomatoes and set aside for 15 minutes.
5. Once the tomatoes have softened, slice them thin and set aside.
6. Heat the oil over medium-high heat.
7. Add the cashews and chilies and stir-fry until nuts are nicely browned and chilies have blackened.
8. Remove from pan with a slotted spoon and transfer to blender.
9. Pour 1/2 c. of the half-and-half (or milk) into the blender and purée until smooth.
10. Return oil to heat, add the garlic, and cook until lightly browned.
11. Add a handful of spinach and cook until wilted. Continue adding spinach a handful at a time until all spinach has been added.
12. Add the contents of the blender to the pan.
13. Pour the remaining 1/2 c. of half-and-half¹ into the blender and swish it around to clean it out. Pour this into the pan as well.
14. Add the pasta, sundried tomatoes, salt, and dill and cook until warmed through (3-5 minutes).

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Variations

Vegan Version

Ingredients

• 225g short pasta (penne, rotini, cavitapi, etc.)
• 1/2 c. dry-packed sun-dried tomatoes
• 1 Tbsp. olive oil
• 1/4 c. raw cashews
• 3-5 dried red Thai, cayenne, or arbol chilies
• 1 c. coconut milk
• 6-7 cloves garlic, minced
• 4 c. firmly packed fresh spinach
• 1/2 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 1/2 c. chopped fresh dill

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¹ I think it might be interesting to try replacing the second 1/2 c. of cream with 1/2 c. of the reserved pasta water instead. (The same water that was used for soaking the tomatoes in.) It should have some good thickening power, will be nicely flavoured from the tomatoes, and will be lower fat than the cream. ^Back