The versatile recipe, which calls for white beans, tofu, tomato sauce and basil, can be used for stuffed shells and is great for a crowd. Photo by Avery Yale Kamila I’m a fair weather cook. What I mean is I do most of my cooking from fall through spring, when the temperatures make a warm oven and a steaming pot a welcome kitchen presence.
My kitchen is part of a small, open plan townhouse, and heat from the stove quickly fills the living space. Add to this the recent spike in summer temperatures in downtown Portland, where I live, and it’s become a daily struggle of summer to keep the hot air out and the cooler air in. Serious cooking does not help.
While an exciting new tree equity program from Portland City Hall aims to lessen heat in downtown residential neighborhoods, those efforts will take a decade or more to meaningfully affect city temperatures. For now, serious cooking (meaning more than a quick sauté, a toasted sandwich or a fruit smoothie) remains a cool-weather pursuit for me. One of my favorite dishes to make when the crisp fall air arrives, as it did promptly at the start of September this year, is a versatile white bean-basil tofu casserole that can be made multiple ways.
My go-to variations include stuffed shells, lasagna, manicotti and rotini casserole. While traditional Italian-American pasta bakes are stuffed with a mix of cow’s milk cheeses, I blend my own creamy, plant-based filling. The base is my kid-friendly vegan mac and cheese sauce , with a .