My very own gluten free pasta dish with wakame and Aiello Specialties eggplant sauce
The above dish I created with Aiello Specialties vegan eggplant sauce (no sugar) and Wakame, added to gluten free pasta.
I recently had the honor of interviewing Tomasso Antonio Aiello, CEO of Aiello Specialties, for an upcoming article in Wayne Area Life newspaper, so he sent me a few complimentary jars.
On his site (https://www.aielloitalianspecialties.com/) you can read about his family’s traditional sauces. This reminded me of my own grandmother making her own sauces, cooking all evening on a Saturday night to make sauce for the entire family, even sending sauces up to an uncle who lived almost an hour away from us. I’d come home from a nightclub and smell her sauce.
I also remembered the seafood pasta dishes my grandmother made. Those were my favorites: linguine with squid, linguine with clams, linguine with lobster. Fish was always my weakness and the last thing I was able to give before I became vegan.
When I became vegan two summers ago, my friend Johnny was disappointed I’d no longer have clams on a half shell with him. And from time to time, my husband will ask me if I ever miss oysters and mussels and clams.
I say “no” and here’s why. If you are considering going vegan, trust me, there is nothing you will “miss.” You can easily create the taste of any animal food you once loved. Even if there were animal foods you hated, they will definitely taste better when you’re eating clean vegan foods. Just my opinion.
I had a strong feeling I’d be able to recreate a “pasta and squid” taste by simply adding a seaweed to the dish. The eggplant in Aiello’s sauce was the game changer. The flavors just popped! Plus, sea vegetables expand when they are hit with water (or sauce!) so it looks like you’re eating so much more than you really are!
Anything is possible, for the love of animals. 
(And be sure to support Aiello’s by clicking the link above. They are a small business, working out of a conventional kitchen. They ship all over the world. Mine came nicely packaged!) My article about them will be in the May issue of Wayne Area Life.
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Maryanne Christiano-Mistretta can be reached at: maryannechristiano@gmail.com.
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Maryanne Christiano-Mistretta 
always looking for ways to use eggplant. merci 🙂