Spaghetti with vegan Pesto Genovese sauce

In May, I introduced Itsukiya Honpo that sells tofu pickled in miso in this blog. Last month, they had a temporary shop in the basement of Entetsu Department Store again, so I bought some products including two new items.

According to the labels, they are called “Tofu miso pickled in olive oil” and “Tofu miso pickled in genovese” respectively. They looked like this. Both of them contained tofu cheese or tofu pickled in miso, which had been further pickled in olive oil and basil sauce respectively.

According to the salesclerk, you can use these products very easily. For example, you can just pour one half of the contents of the one with basil sauce onto spaghetti. So, I did it this evening for dinner by using gluten free spaghetti of alce nero. It was made from organic corn and rice. In Japan, gluten free spaghetti and pasta are often made from rice or brown rice, however, it is difficult to find products without food additives. So, I chose a product imported from Italy. Though gluten free spaghetti is very expensive compared with products made from wheat flour, I just felt like trying it, expecting that it might be better for the health.

After boiling 80g of it for 10 minutes and drained water, I poured “Tofu miso pickled in genovese.” Spaghetti had a light yellow color that matched the sauce.

Since I have been trying to be a vegan, I had given up buying ordinary Pesto Genovese sauce home as it contains not only basil and pine nuts but also cheese. So, I was very glad to find that this vegan sauce tasted as good as such Pesto Genovese sauce. It was understandable because tofu pickled with miso is a fermented food like cheese. It has a rich flavor. Unlike Pesto Genovese sauce, it didn’t contain pine nuts, however, it contained extra virgin olive oil, basil, dried garlic, black pepper and so on.

I have also tried another product “Tofu miso pickled in olive oil.” I used it for salad with spinach and parsley.

These cubes reminded me of cubic cheese in oil from Denmark, which had been also my favorite (I had given it up, too). I found this vegan cubes quite good. In addition, I had smoked tofu cheese to spread on rye bread. It has a distinctive smoky flavor like smoked cheese, and I liked it very much.

I wish these kinds of products will be always available in ordinary supermarkets all over Japan. Then, it will be much easier to become a vegan.