1Place dried shiitake mushrooms in a bowl filled with water to rehydrate them, set aside.

Fill a wide cooking pot (26 cm ~ 10 inch) with water. Bring to a boil. Add pasta to the pot and stir. Reduce heat to low and simmer the pasta, uncovered, for 12 minutes - or according to the time given in the packaging instructions. Taste the pasta to make sure it’s soft and cooked through. Drain and set aside.  

Alternatively, use a pressure cooker. Add 1 lt of water and pasta to a pressure cooker. Set for 1 minute but turn it off the moment it signals pressure build-up. Strain the pasta as soon as the pressure cooker is depressurized.

2In the meantime, make the cream sauce. Add all of the sauce ingredients to a blender. Blend until smooth and set aside.

3Remove shiitake mushroom stems - if yours came with stems, and finely cut them. Finely dice onion and cube smoked tofu. Add to a large deep frying pan with 1 cup of water. Sauté at medium heat, stirring occasionally, for 10 minutes or until the onions are soft and cooked through. Cook until all the water has evaporated.

4Add soy sauce to the pan and stir fry to brown for another 2 minutes.

5Add cream sauce to the pan. Cook and stir until it begins to bubble ~ 3 minutes.

6Add cooked pasta and mix to combine. Cook and stir until pasta is hot.

7Make cheesy topping by grinding cashews, nutritional yeast, garlic powder and salt together. You can use a coffee grinder or a blender on pulse setting - pulse for 10 seconds.

Transfer creamy pasta to a plate and add the topping. Sprinkle it with black pepper and serve while it’s hot!