By Shaylah Brown, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

I first tried Rasta pasta six years ago.

My friend was hosting her birthday party, a paint-and-sip night in Brooklyn. She is Jamaican and Nigerian, so I wasn’t surprised to find the creamy Jamaican dish on the menu. When I had the first bite, I knew immediately that I would be getting seconds and maybe thirds. I was enticed.

The dish is a Jamaican play on Italian alfredo pasta. Think jerk seasoning, Scotch bonnet peppers, ginger and thyme. Right away, I wanted to understand how to replicate it in a way that suited my dietary needs as a vegetarian leaning toward veganism who also avoids dairy products.

It was in 2021, while dating a guy who is Jamaican by way of India and Costa Rica, that I first made the Jamaican pasta dish. About a month into

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