Sunchoke Pasta Sauce Recipes

FETTUCCINE WITH SUNCHOKES AND HERBS

Steps:

• Heat 2 tablespoons oil in a 12-inch skillet. Add shallots and garlic and sauté on medium until they are soft but not brown. Add remaining oil, olives and sunchokes and sauté, stirring, 5 minutes. Season with salt. Cover pan and cook about 15 minutes more, stirring once or twice, until sunchokes are tender.
• Meanwhile, bring a large pot of salted water to a boil for the pasta. Cook pasta until al dente, about 4 minutes. Remove 1 cup pasta water. Drain pasta.
• Add 1/2 cup pasta water, the rosemary and thyme to the skillet. Stir. Add drained pasta to skillet and using tongs or a large spoon, fold all the ingredients together. Add additional pasta water if needed to keep mixture moist. Add parsley. Season with salt and pepper. Serve with cheese.

ROASTED SUNCHOKE WITH CREAMY GOAT CHEESE

Steps:

• Spread the sunchokes out evenly on a baking sheet. Season generously with salt and pepper and drizzle with 1/4 cup olive oil. Mix them around with your hands so everything gets evenly coated.
• Slice off the top part of the head of garlic to expose a small amount of the cloves. Place the head, root-side down, in a piece of aluminum foil. Season the top cut part with salt and pepper and drizzle with 1 tablespoon olive oil. Wrap the garlic in the foil, creating a package, and place it on the baking sheet with the sunchokes. Roast until the sunchokes are brown and slightly tender, 45 to 50 minutes.
• While the sunchokes are still hot, smash them with a potato masher or fork. They should be smashed but not completely mashed up.
• In a large bowl, combine the goat cheese, chives, a generous pinch of salt and pepper and the remaining 2 tablespoon olive oil. Add the smashed sunchokes. Take the garlic out of the foil. Squeeze the bulb so that the roasted cloves come out of the skins and fall into the bowl with the goat cheese and sunchokes. Stir it all up until the ingredients are blended and the sunchokes well coated. Serve immediately.

ROASTED MUSHROOM AND SUNCHOKE BISQUE

Steps:

• Preheat an oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C).
• Toss the Jerusalem artichokes, potatoes, and garlic with 1 tablespoon olive oil in a large bowl; season with sea salt and black pepper. Spread the mixture into a baking dish. Toss the mushrooms with another tablespoon of olive oil in a separate bowl; spread into a separate baking dish.
• Bake the potato mixture in the preheated oven for 20 minutes. Place the mushrooms in the oven and continue baking until the potatoes are soft and slightly browned, about 25 minutes more. Remove both dishes from the oven and set aside.
• Melt the vegan margarine in a large stock pot over medium-low heat; cook the onion in the margarine until completely soft, 7 to 10 minutes. Stir the roasted potato mixture and the mushrooms into the onions, along with 1 teaspoon sea salt and the water; allow the mixture to come to a simmer, stirring occasionally, for 4 to 5 minutes. Stir the mushroom broth and sage into the mixture. Place a cover on the stock pot and cook to allow the flavors to blend, about 20 minutes.
• Allow the soup to cool slightly before pouring in batches into a blender, filling the pitcher no more than halfway. Hold the lid firmly with a folded kitchen towel and carefully start the blender, using a few quick pulses to get the soup moving before leaving it on to puree; transfer blended batches to a clean pot. Alternately, you can use a stick blender and puree the soup in the pot. Stir the soy milk, if using, into the finished bisque to serve.

MASHED SUNCHOKES

Steps:

• Place sunchokes in a large saucepan. Add milk and enough water to cover. Season with salt and bring to a boil over medium-high heat; immediately reduce heat to a simmer and cook until sunchokes are tender, about 30 minutes.
• Drain, reserving cooking liquid. Return sunchokes to saucepan and add olive oil; mash with a potato masher until smooth. Stir in some of the reserved cooking liquid to moisten. Serve immediately.

CARAMELIZED SUNCHOKES WITH BEET CONFIT

Steps:

• Heat oven to 400 degrees. Place the beets in a baking dish and toss with just enough olive oil to coat. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and add apple cider and thyme sprigs to the pan. Cover with foil and bake for 1 hour 30 minutes to 2 hours, removing the foil after an hour to allow the pan juices to reduce. Let beets cool in cooking liquid.
• Meanwhile, in another baking pan, toss the sunchokes with just enough olive oil to coat and season with salt and pepper. Add a tablespoon of water to the bottom of the pan and cover tightly with foil. Bake in the same oven as the beets for 30 to 45 minutes, or until tender. Let cool.
• To make the beet dressing, whisk together 3 tablespoons of the beet cooking liquid, the apple cider vinegar, mustard, ginger and walnut oil. Season with salt to taste.
• Peel beets using a paper towels to rub off the skins. Coarsely chop the beets and place in a salad bowl. Toss the beets with the dressing.
• Heat a large sauté pan over medium-high heat. Add grapeseed oil to the depth of 3/4 inch. Once the oil is hot, fry sunchokes in batches until crisp. Drain on paper towels. Toss the fried sunchokes in a medium bowl with honey and rosemary. Season with salt.
• To serve, spread the beets on a platter and top with the warm sunchokes. Sprinkle with herbs if using.

SUNCHOKE PASTA SAUCE

Steps:

• Heat your butter and oil in a saucepan. Wash your sunchokes and leek, slice the leek thin and grate the sunchokes using a medium grater. Add the garlic to the oil and gently sautee until the garlic just begins to brown around the edges. Add the sunchokes and leeks and continue to cook, stirring occasionally, for fifteen minutes or until the sunchokes are fully soft, and no longer crunchy. At this point, you can add the white wine or 1 oz. of good quality vodka. This alcohol is for flavor only, and I would recommend using either a neutral spirit or a lightly flavored wine. The alcohol itself will evaporate as it cooks, and it releases a delicate sweetness from the sunchokes.