Creamy Sun Dried Tomato Pasta Recipe

That’s type of like a photo voltaic dried tomato pesto pasta…however it’s creamy. 🙂 You may not at all, ever get a retailer bought sauce with this lots photo voltaic dried tomato flavour in my Creamy Photo voltaic Dried Tomato Pasta. Or simply by stirring by the use of chopped photo voltaic dried tomato!

Oh – and solely 400 power a serving. And also you perceive my components aren’t teeny tiny!

Creamy Photo voltaic Dried Tomato Pasta

I do know it’s a fairly utterly completely different method to make a photo voltaic dried tomato pasta, nevertheless bear with me – it actually works, it’s large straightforward and there could also be logic to my madness. And it’s darn tasty!

I’ve made photo voltaic dried tomato pasta sooner than by just by stirring chopped up bits of photo voltaic dried tomato by the use of a cream based totally sauce. Nonetheless stunning, don’t get me improper! Nonetheless I truly wanted to aim to boost the depth of photo voltaic dried tomato flavour all via the entire sauce, fairly than merely getting little bursts of flavour.

So I decided to whizz up a sauce inside the blender. Everytime you take the lid off the blender, you’re hit with a waft of photo voltaic dried tomato fragrance and in addition you merely know this pasta goes to be delish!

Plus, by pureeing the sauce, the photo voltaic dried tomato thickens it and makes it richer too, which means you don’t actually wish to make use of that lots cream and also you proceed to get what tastes like rich, creamy sauce. I solely use 1/4 cup of cream on this, mixed with milk, and no thickener. Nonetheless look how thick the sauce is!

Usually I roast up veggies and toss them by the use of the pasta. Nonetheless I occurred to have some large bunches of English spinach I acquired on sale for merely $0.99 each. So I chopped it up, gave it an important rinse, shook it dry then stirred it correct into the pasta.

When you want to add protein into this, chicken is attractive and I truly wouldn’t say no to bacon each. 🙂

Some modern basil is a perfect pairing in order so as to add a contact of freshness to an in every other case fairly creamy sauce. Whizzing it up inside the sauce truly brings out the delicate odor of the basil that mingles with the photo voltaic dried tomato. Sorry, I do know I maintain talking regarding the odor however it’s the proper part of cooking this – the second when you carry the lid off the blender and get the first waft, and in addition you merely know you’re in for an precise take care of!

I don’t know how else to elucidate this aside from to say it’s like a pesto, however it’s creamy and masses a lot much less oily on account of in distinction to pesto, this is not whizzed up using oil, the underside is milk with a bit of little bit of cream.

I desire to serve this Creamy Photo voltaic Dried Tomato Pasta scorching like completely different creamy pastas nevertheless people I’ve given leftovers of this to acknowledged that it’s merely pretty much as good at room temperature. 🙂

Once you’re inside the mood for a carb blow out, add Greater-Than-Dominos Garlic Bread or Cheesy Garlic Bread!  

Creamy Sun Dried Tomato Pasta Recipe

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Serves: 4 Prep Time: 15 minutes Cooking Time: 15 minutes 15 minutes

Nutrition facts: 400 calories 20 grams fat

Rating: 5.0/5

( 1 voted )

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup (tightly packed) sun dried tomatoes, roughly chopped (Note 1) + more for garnish
• 1/2 cup basil leaves , lightly packed
• 1/4 cup yoghurt or sour cream (optional) (Note 2)
• 1/4 cup cream (Note 3)
• 1 3/4 cups milk (I use low fat)
• 1 tbsp tomato paste (optional) (Note 4)
• 1/4 cup parmesan cheese , finely grated
• 1/2 tsp salt
• Pepper
• 300 g pasta of choice (I like penne/ziti)
• 1 tbsp oil from sun dried tomatoes
• 2 garlic cloves , crushed
• 1 small onion , finely diced (brown, white or yellow)
• 4 cups (tightly packed) finely shredded fresh English spinach
• Parmesan cheese
• Fresh basil , finely shredded

Instructions

1. Place the Creamy Sauce ingredients in a blender and puree until smooth. Adjust salt to your taste.
2. Heat oil in a large skillet over medium high heat. Add garlic and cook for 20 seconds, then add onion and cook for 3 to 5 minutes until translucent and cooked through.
3. Meanwhile, cook your pasta of choice in a large pot of salted boiling water until al dente (just cooked through but still firm). SCOOP out 1 mug of the pasta cooking water, then drain the pasta.
4. Add the pasta into the skillet, then pour the Creamy Sauce in, all the spinach and about 1/2 cup of the pasta water (Note 5). Stir to coat the pasta in the sauce and to wilt the spinach. Cook, stirring gently, for about 2 minutes until the sauce is warmed through. Adjust salt to taste.
5. Use the remaining pasta water to get the sauce to the consistency you want.
6. Remove from the stove and serve immediately, with more parmesan cheese and basil if desired.

Notes

1. You can use sun dried tomatoes that come in oil, or even the ones that do not come in oil. Shake off excess oil if you are using the sun dried tomatoes that come in oil.
2. The yoghurt/sour cream cuts through the richness a bit and is also a thickener. Without it, I find that the sauce is a wee bit too creamy. But this is optional. If you don’t have yoghurt or sour cream on hand, a squeeze of lemon juice would suffice but to keep the balance of creaminess in the sauce, I would add more cream.
3. If you want to indulge, feel free to increase the amount of cream in this and decrease the amount of milk by the same amount.
4. The tomato paste is mainly for colour. It is a bit of a thickener as well, but it’s not critical. So feel free to omit it if you want.
5. The starchy water that the pasta was cooked in reacts with the oil in the Creamy Sauce when cooked over heat to magically transform into a glossy, silky sauce that clings to the pasta. This magic process is called emulsification and it’s the secret to how Italians make simple pastas taste so gourmet!
6. Nutrition per serving, assuming this serves 4.