This is kind of like a sun dried tomato pesto pasta…but it’s creamy. 🙂 You will never, ever get a store bought sauce with this much sun dried tomato flavour in my Creamy Sun Dried Tomato Pasta. Or simply by stirring through chopped sun dried tomato!
Oh – and only 400 calories a serving. And you know my portions aren’t teeny tiny!
Creamy Sun Dried Tomato Pasta
I know this is a rather different way to make a sun dried tomato pasta, but bear with me – it works, it’s super simple and there is logic to my madness. And it’s darn tasty!
I’ve made sun dried tomato pasta before by just by stirring chopped up bits of sun dried tomato through a cream based sauce. Still lovely, don’t get me wrong! But I really wanted to try to increase the intensity of sun dried tomato flavour throughout all the sauce, rather than just getting little bursts of flavour.
So I decided to whizz up a sauce in the blender. When you take the lid off the blender, you’re hit with a waft of sun dried tomato fragrance and you just know this pasta is going to be delish!
Plus, by pureeing the sauce, the sun dried tomato thickens it and makes it richer too, which means you don’t actually need to use that much cream and you still get what tastes like rich, creamy sauce. I only use 1/4 cup of cream in this, mixed with milk, and no thickener. But look how thick the sauce is!
Sometimes I roast up veggies and toss them through the pasta. But I happened to have some big bunches of English spinach I got on sale for just $0.99 each. So I chopped it up, gave it a good rinse, shook it dry then stirred it right into the pasta.
If you want to add protein into this, chicken is lovely and I certainly wouldn’t say no to bacon either. 🙂
Some fresh basil is a perfect pairing to add a touch of freshness to an otherwise rather creamy sauce. Whizzing it up in the sauce really brings out the delicate smell of the basil that mingles with the sun dried tomato. Sorry, I know I keep talking about the smell but it’s the best part of cooking this – the moment when you lift the lid off the blender and get the first waft, and you just know you’re in for a real treat!
I don’t know how else to describe this other than to say it’s like a pesto, but it’s creamy and a lot less oily because unlike pesto, this is not whizzed up using oil, the base is milk with a bit of cream.
I like to serve this Creamy Sun Dried Tomato Pasta hot like other creamy pastas but people I’ve given leftovers of this to said that it’s just as nice at room temperature. 🙂
If you’re in the mood for a carb blow out, add Better-Than-Dominos Garlic Bread or Cheesy Garlic Bread! – Nagi x
More ways to get your creamy pasta fix!
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Baked Mac and Cheese – and try the Shrimp version!
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Browse all pasta recipes
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Sun Dried Tomato Pasta
Ingredients
Creamy Sauce
- 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
Pasta
- 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
To Serve (optional)
- Parmesan cheese
- Fresh basil , finely shredded
Instructions
- Place the Creamy Sauce ingredients in a blender and puree until smooth. Adjust salt to your taste.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- Use the remaining pasta water to get the sauce to the consistency you want.
- Remove from the stove and serve immediately, with more parmesan cheese and basil if desired.
Recipe Notes:
Nutrition Information:
If you can’t be bothered to show your ingredients in metric units then I can’t be bothered to convert cups into sensible measurements.
Invest in a set of measuring cups and spoons. Makes life a lot easier and less stressful 😊
My kids loved this, said “it tastes like restaurant food!”! I used 10oz frozen spinach because that’s all I had and it was great!
I never usually comment after finding recipes online, but this was soooo delicious!! I added some shredded BBQ chook. Will definitely be making this again! Thank you!
Delicious! It’s a fairly easy and quick recipe that never fails.
Made this last night and it is going to be a regular. My hubby (who doesn’t like pasta) devoured it!
This pasta is super delicious and easy to prefer. My son has eaten double portion 😂.
Does recipe include dried or cooked pasta?
I just tried this dish and was simply delightful! This afternoon I went to warm up some pasta and the sauce seemed dried out and little clumps. I did use dry sun dried tomatoes as that was all I had and add evoo oil 2tbsp.
should I have added more oil to balance all the liquid dairy components?
Can the pasta sauce be made in bulk & frozen?
Hi Nagi, Would it be possible to use this creamy sundried tomato sauce for a baked pasta?
Yes but you may need a little more of it if you’re baking the pasta – you don’t want it to dry out! N x
My family really liked this dish – even my über picky teenager. No modifications; added some chicken. I did a recipe and a half and had to transfer to a Dutch over. Might try adding mushrooms next time.
LOVE this recipe, so tasty. I was just about to make another when searching for recipes and recognized your website! Also, love so many of the recipes on your website!!
Very delicious! Added a tbsp of red pepper flakes for a little spice. Going to serve with chicken tomorrow for left overs! Yum.
Really good, was able to prep it before hand and just threw it all together in the skillet and dinner
Ready in 5 min!
Yummmmmm!!! 👏 I was going to make another recipe but lost the website so googled again and found yours! So glad I did, it was sooooo good!! I love your website, so many great recipes
Restaurant quality. Delicious.
This was very nice, easy to make and even the 14 year old son lapped it up. I omitted the spinach as i couldn’t get any, added line nuts, char grilled zucchini and a few mushrooma.
This was delicious! Wanted to whip up something quickly for a date night, and my husband and I loved it!!
Absolutely delicious! Will be making this more often, so easy to make and way better than store bought pasta sauce!
All your recipes are amazing. I’ve tried lot’s of it already and my family always love it. And yeah, we share the same principles in cooking. Thank you and God bless 😘
Wahoo, I love hearing this! N x
This tasted delicious and was super easy to make! Had so much flavour and was just WOW.
Hey Nagi, what vegetables do you recommend I roast with this dish? Any you think go with it best? Thanks!
Hi Joey, any really! I love roasted broccoli or asparagus would be amazing to add some green – N x