So, for the past few days, we’ve been talking about Le Grand’s delicious sauces.  (Read here for an introduction to Le Grand’s gourmet raw sauces.)  Yesterday, we made braised meatballs in sun-dried tomato pesto, today we’re going to try something different:

Cucumber “Fettuccini” with Le Grand Garden Pesto Sauce

So I think in my intro, I said I was going to be making cooked food with Le Grand’s array of gourmet cold pressed, raw sauces.  However, the more I got to thinking about it, the more I wanted to make a raw meal with from the raw sauce.  So, I did!

This is a take on raw stroganoff that we made at the SolFud raw tasting dinner.  However, I took this dish from Russia and sent it to Italy with the help of Le Grand Garden Pesto sauce.

Making the Cucumber Fettuccini

The key to making this fettuccini work is controlling the salt in the pesto sauce.  Like most commerical sauces, the raw pesto sauce has some salt (both for flavor, and I am guessing as a preservative.)  Normally, this isn’t an issue because when you mix a sauce in with other ingredients, the salt gets diluted and everything is great.  However, in this dish we want the pesto to be the star because, frankly, the cucumber doesn’t bring a lot of bold flavor to the party.

So, we’re going to make a raw vegan cream sauce from cashews to stir in with the raw pesto for a delicious, healthy, raw dish!

You will need:

• 2 cups cashews
• 1/2 package of Le Grand Garden Pesto sauce
• 2 seedless cucumbers or 8 seeded cucumbers peeled, deseeded, and cut into fettuccini sized strips
• 1 teaspoon black pepper
• 1 tomato, deseeded and cut into cubes
• Black olives to taste
• Chopped parsley for garnish

To make this dish, start by putting the cashews in a blender with a cup of water.   Pulse 8-10 times and then blend until smooth.  The cashew cream should have the texture somewhere between heavy whipping cream and whipped cream.  Anything in this spectrum is fine.  If it’s too thick, though add more water.  If it’s too thin, add more cashews.

Put the cashew cream in a bowl and add the pesto sauce.  Mix thoroughly.

Pat the cucumbers dry with a paper towel.  You can give them a light squeeze to see if you wring any more water out of them.  Add the cucumbers and black pepper to the cream and toss to coat.

Check for salt.  You may need to add a pinch more.

Serve with the tomatoes, black olives, and parsley.  Enjoy!

The picture was taken from the Le Grand website.