Ever have those days where you’re just sitting at work and you are struck with a sudden craving for a particular food and you can’t let go of that hankering until you have it? I was dreaming about baked spaghetti with cheese on it today, so that’s what I went home and made for dinner! This vegan ricotta cheese is so fast to make and it tastes good. I had to stop myself from eating all of it by itself before even putting any on the spaghetti. Simple ingredients, simple comfort food – just what I needed today!

Begin by preheating the oven to 350.

Ingredients for Spaghetti:
1 package whole wheat thin spaghetti noodles, cooked as per package directions
1 1/2 to 2 cups spaghetti sauce of your choice (tonight’s was plain traditional and the rest of this mushroom kind we had)
1-2 tbsp olive oil

Make Spaghetti:
I am sure we all know how to make spaghetti, but I wanted to write this to say that it’s best to mix the sauce , oil and noodles together before adding them to the casserole dish. The oil will help keep it a little more moist.

Ingredients for Vegan Tofu Ricotta Cheese:
1/2 block extra firm tofu
1/4 cup nutritional yeast
2 tbsp Vegenaise
2 tbsp water
1/4 tsp black pepper
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp onion powder
1/4 tsp white wine vinegar
1/2 tbsp dried basil ( preferably fresh basil, chopped fine, packed tightly)

Make Ricotta:
Crumble tofu into a small bowl and smash with a fork to get all the big clumps out. Add rest of ingredients and continue to mash and mix with the fork until it’s smooth but still maintains that gritty/chunky/lumpy ricotta look to it.

Now, put two and two together!

Add spaghetti into a glass Pyrex-type baking dish that has been lightly sprayed with nonstick spray. Add more sauce if you wish, then spread the ricotta over the spaghetti and garnish with fresh basil leaves before baking. Bake for 30 minutes or until ricotta lightly browns on the top. Serve with slivered almonds and/or a sprinkling of panko bread crumbs for crunch!