VeganMoFo Day 3: Good intentions; So-so outcome

So, in pregan days, I ate this walnut sauce over mushroom ravioli in florence, Italy. This, ladies and gentlemen, was the kind of sauce that dreams are made of. My mind occasionally wanders off to that fateful meal in a beautiful city, and I wonder if I could create a vegan version. I found lots of variations of walnut sauce recipes online, but most started with a base of a bechamel sauce, so I used that as my jumping off point. I couldn't find vegan mushroom ravioli in the store, and I was too lazy to attempt to make them tonight, so I decided to use farfalle and then just add mushrooms into the sauce (I'm using the old noggin'!) I made a basic bechamel sauce and then blended this with walnuts to produce a creamy sauce. I sauteed a whole heck of a lot of garlic and olive oil and added mushrooms until cooked down. I combined the cream sauce with the garlic/mushroom mixture and spiced it up a bit with some parsley, oregano, and sea salt and pepper to taste (a lot), and let it simmer for a bit to let the flavors meld together. Now, it wasn't horrible, but it wasn't the walnut sauce of my dreams, so I must keep working on this. I think I shall use Bryanna Clark Grogan's Bechamel sauce next time (scroll down), as it sounds a bit more savory and would reduce the sweetness level that was present in mine. Next time, my friends, next time. For the time being, me and my garlic breath are going to go watch the latest episode of True Blood.