Vegan Baked Ziti with Almond Ricotta & Tomato Cream Sauce

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Flavorful and hearty vegan baked ziti made with homemade almond ricotta and tomato cream sauce. Gluten-free and oil-free!

Baked ziti is such an easy weeknight meal! It is so versatile too! Being plant-based, I love that option because I used to really enjoy “real” ricotta cheese in my baked ziti! With this recipe, I don’t miss it in the slightest. It tastes SO similar!

For this recipe, I used my tomato cream sauce and almond ricotta, all homemade with healthy ingredients for a very wholesome dish!
You can easily swap out packaged vegan cheese and jarred sauce to make this super simple and quick, but I like putting in the extra time for the fresh, homemade ingredients!

How to Make Vegan Baked Ziti with Almond Ricotta and Tomato Cream Sauce

For the tomato cream sauce:
Start making your sauce first as this will be the most time-consuming step.
Start by boiling your cashews and getting your onion and garlic on the pan to cook. Once you add the canned tomatoes to the pan and the cashews are done, set everything aside to cool, then start on your almond ricotta.
When everything is cooled, add all sauce ingredients to a high speed blender and pulse until smooth and creamy.

For the almond ricotta:
Just throw all the ingredients in the food processor and pulse pulse pulse! Add your plant-based milk slowly until you reach the desired consistency.
Make sure to keep pulsing until no hard bits remain. You want this completely soft with a whipped consistency. Set almond ricotta aside.

Boil your water for the pasta and cook pasta according to instructions on package. Cook about 2 minutes less than what the box says.
Drain the pasta and lightly oil a 9×13 pan (The oil is so the pasta doesn’t stick. You can most likely skip the oil, I just like to add it just in case).
Follow the FULL instructions below to assemble baked ziti, bake and enjoy!

If you make this recipe, don’t forget to take a photo and tag @wholesome.crumbs on Instagram!

Vegan Baked Ziti with Almond Ricotta & Tomato Cream Sauce

Flavorful and hearty vegan baked ziti made with homemade almond ricotta and tomato cream sauce- oil-free and gluten-free!

5 from 2 votes

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Prep Time 35 minutes mins

Cook Time 25 minutes mins

Total Time 1 hour hr

Course Main Course

Cuisine Italian

Servings 4 people

Equipment

• Food Processor or High Speed Blender

Ingredients

  

For the Tomato Cream Sauce:

• 1/2 cup chopped sweet onion
• 1 tsp minced garlic about 2 cloves
• splash of oil-free veggie broth
• 3/4 cup raw cashews
• 1 large 28 oz can crushed tomatoes in a tomato puree -(if you don’t have tomatoes in a tomato puree and just regular canned tomatoes, that’s ok, just add more seasoning when the sauce is done for more flavor)
• 1/2 cup canned full-fat unsweetened coconut milk use majority of the hardened cream
• 5 or 6 medium basil leaves plus extra for topping
• salt and pepper to taste
• Italian seasoning to taste

For the Almond Ricotta:

• 6 tbsp vegan plain unsweetened yogurt
• 1 & 1/2 cups blanched & slivered almonds 
• 3/4 cup unsweetened nut milk start with 1/2 and add more slowly
• 4 tbsp nutritional yeast
• 3/4-1 tsp mineral salt start on the lower end and adjust to taste
• 1 & 3/4- 2 tsp garlic powder start on the low end and adjust to taste
• 2 tsp Italian seasoning
• 4 tbsp lemon juice

For the Pasta

• about 1 pound vegan and GF penne pasta

Instructions

 

• Start by preheating the oven to 375 and then start on your sauce.

Make your tomato cream sauce:

• Chop onion and add onion, garlic and splash of veggie broth to a large pan and sauté over medium heat for about 5 minutes. 
• While the onion and garlic are cooking, boil your cashews. Add water and cashews to a pot and cover. Turn heat on high (I add the cashews to the water before it boils).
• Once boiling, lower the heat to med-low and boil the cashews for about 15 minutes. Once done, drain and set aside to cool.
• Once the onion and garlic are cooked, add your can of tomatoes and 1/2 cup canned coconut milk to the pan and cook for a few minutes. Remove from heat and set aside to cool. 
• Once the cashews and tomato/coconut milk/ onion and garlic mixture are cooled, add everything plus a handful of basil (about 5-6 leaves) to a high-speed blender and blend until smooth and creamy. 
• Adjust salt, pepper and Italian seasoning to your liking. You may even want to add more garlic depending on taste preference.
• Set sauce aside.

Next, boil pasta:

• Boil water for pasta and cook pasta about 2 minutes less than the instructions on the box.

Then, make your almond ricotta:

• Add all the almond ricotta ingredients to the food processor, starting on the lower end (about 1/2 cup) with the plant-based milk. Pulse very very very well until smooth. Add more milk slowly until you reach the smooth and whipped consistency. You will need to stop and scrape the sides down a few times while doing this.
• Set almond ricotta aside.

Assemble your baked ziti:

• Add a little bit of oil to the bottom and sides of the 9×13 pan to lightly grease.
• Add about 1/2 of the pasta and cover with about 2 cups of sauce and mix well.
• Next, add about 1/2 of the almond ricotta on top of the pasta.
• Then, add the rest of the pasta and cover the with rest of the sauce.

• Add remaining almond ricotta.
• Top with additional Italian seasoning and basil if desired.
• Bake for about 25 minutes. Top with fresh basil and enjoy!

Keyword Gluten Free, Oil Free, Vegan