I’ve long complained about not enjoying beets. And then, one day…

I liked them.

Now, could I eat that horrible French salade de betteraves (a salad of just beets)? Probably not. But I’m really enjoying roasted winter vegetables. I decided to take it to the next level, throwing together a dish that’s all the rage on the Internet. This flavor endlessly reminds me of France–I even found a French blog when I was looking to see if this way of using beets was popular there. As usual, they’ve given this dish a lovely name: pâtes en rose.

I liked their idea of adding tofu to make things a bit creamier–like a beet alfredo. Remember: I’m not eating meat for Lent… and we’re trying to limit spending, so when I had to pick between tofu & goat cheese, I made myself go with the tofu. Here’s the Betz version of pâtes en rose.

Ingredients

• 3 medium-sized beets
• 1 block firm tofu
• 1/8-1/4 cup olive oil
• 1 teaspoon dill
• salt & pepper to taste
• 1 lb. spaghetti
• 1 cup of the pasta water

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. In the meantime, clean your beets. Trim off any greens left & any scraggly ends & bits. Wrap the beets in aluminum foil & put on a baking sheet. Bake the beats for about 40 minutes, until you can easily poke through the beets with a fork.
2. Peel back the skin of the beets or trim it away. (I peeled off about half, since it was a bit tough. The rest seemed fine, but I admittedly have no idea what that means–in any case, I didn’t taste it. Leaving it there didn’t ruin anything, and I’d given them a good scrub.)
3. Bring a pot of water to boil & salt it well.
4. Drain the tofu & drop it into your food processor. Add the dill, salt & pepper (I used about 1/2 teaspoon of each). Toss the beet into the food processor as well. Drizzle a bit of oil over top, then purée until smooth. Add a bit more oil to thin the sauce out, but don’t worry if it still seems quite thick–you don’t want more than 1/4 cup of oil.
5. Drop your pasta into the water. Cook until al dente, according to package. Scoop out a cup of the pasta water; set aside. Drain the noodles. Add the sauce & reserved pasta water back to the pot & toss around. Pour your noodles back in on the sauce & toss well.
6. Mangez. If being vegan isn’t important to you, throw serious amounts of goat cheese or Parmesan onto this bad boy.