This creamy sun-dried tomato pasta dish is packed with flavour, so easy to make and ready in under 30 minutes. Penne pasta in the creamiest garlic and cheese sauce with tender sun-dried tomatoes, fresh baby spinach and toasty pine nuts. This is a great weeknight veggie dinner.
I don't know about you but creamy pasta dishes are definitely in my top ten best comfort foods. I love nothing more than a big bowl of creamy mushroom stroganoff or creamy garlic mushroom pasta to satisfy my carb cravings.
This sun-dried tomato pasta is one of my favourite pasta dishes. It's so easy to make and everyone loves it! I love how simple this recipe is but you could easily add more veggies in if you want to. Mushrooms or peas would work really well in that creamy sauce.
What You'll Need
You only need a few store cupboard ingredients to make this sun-dried tomato pasta, you probably have most of these ingredients already.
How To Make Sun-Dried Tomato Pasta
This is just a quick visual guide, please see the recipe card below for full instructions and full ingredient list.
- Cook the onion until soft. Add the garlic and oregano, cook for a minute then stir in the sliced sun-dried tomatoes. Cook the pasta and toast the pine nuts.
- Pour in the cream, stirring all the time. Once all the cream has been incorporated add the grated cheese to the pan and stir well. Add a little grated nutmeg and season with salt and ground black pepper.
- Add the spinach to the sauce, stir until the spinach is wilted.
- Drain the pasta, then tip it into the sauce. Stir in the chopped basil then serve immediately with toasted pine nuts and more grated cheese.
Recipe Tips and Variations
- Add in some veggies - while I love how simple this dish is you can absolutely add in some extra veggies. Try adding mushrooms, courgettes (zucchini), broccoli or peas.
- Pasta - You can use lots of different types of pasta for this dish, penne, fusilli work great as does linguine, spaghetti or tagliatelle.
- Cream - I use double cream (heavy cream) for this dish, this gave the best results. You could swap the cream for light cream cheese or mascarpone if you want to switch it up a bit.
- Sun-dried tomatoes - if you can, choose good quality sundried tomatoes the kind you find in the deli counter or in jars filled with oil.
- Pine nuts - a few readers have mentioned to me that pine nuts are very expensive in the USA. If you need to swap them for something else you could try finely chopped almonds, walnuts or cashews. You could also swap the pine nuts for toasted breadcrumbs instead. The pine nuts are not an essential ingredient to this dish so if you want to omit them altogether you can.
- Pro-Tip - To remove the excess oil from the sun-dried tomatoes place each tomato flat on a chopping board. Use the back of a kitchen knife and scrape the tomato from the top to the bottom to remove the oil.
- Pro-Tip - Add 3 or 4 tablespoons of the water from the cooking pasta to your sauce, this will add more flavour to your sauce and help it thicken, helping the sauce stick to your pasta.
More Delicious Pasta Recipes You Will Love
- Creamy Spinach and Mushroom Pasta - this is perfect veggie comfort food. It’s really tasty and satisfying, quick and easy to make, great for a tasty weeknight dinner.
- Creamy Mushroom Pasta Bake - Pasta, mushrooms and kale, in a creamy cheesy sauce baked with a crispy topping. Perfect for a tasty family-friendly veggie dinner.
- Pesto Pasta Bake - a tasty vegetarian pasta bake packed with hidden veggies! Perfect for a tasty weeknight dinner.
- Harissa Roasted Vegetable Pasta - Veggies are roasted in harissa, tossed in pasta and creamy goat's cheese to make a deliciously creamy pasta. Great for a quick and easy weeknight dinner.
Have you made this Creamy Sun-Dried Tomato Pasta Recipe? Rate it and leave me a comment below to let me know what you think.
Sun-Dried Tomato Pasta
Creamy sun-dried tomato pasta, packed with flavour, easy to make and ready in under 30 minutes. Penne pasta in the creamiest garlic and cheese sauce with tender sun-dried tomatoes, fresh baby spinach and toasty pine nuts.
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Servings: 4
Calories: 763kcal
Ingredients
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1 medium brown onion finely chopped
- ¼ tsp sea salt + more to season
- ½ tsp dried oregano
- 3 cloves of garlic finely grated or put through a garlic press
- 12 sun-dried tomatoes from a jar in oil. Sliced into thin strips.
- 250 g (2 and ¼ cups) penne pasta (dry weight)
- 2 tbsp pine nuts
- 300 ml (1 and ¼ cups) double/heavy cream
- 45 g (½ cup grated) hard Italian cheese finely grated + more for serving
- A small pinch of grated nutmeg
- 90 g (3 cups) baby spinach
- 4 or 5 leaves of fresh basil torn
- ¼ tsp freshly ground black pepper + more to serve
Instructions
- Heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a large saute pan.Add the chopped onion and ¼ teaspoon of sea salt. Cook over medium heat stirring often until the onion is soft, this can take at least 15 minutes.
- While the onion is cooking, cook your pasta according to the packet instructions.Now is also the time to toast the pine nuts if you are using them. Do this by frying them in a dry pan until they are golden then set them aside until you are ready to use them.
- Once the onion is soft add ½ teaspoon of dried oregano, to the onion along with the 3 cloves of garlic and cook for a minute.Now add the sun-dried tomatoes and stir them into the onions.
- Next slowly pour in about 300ml (1 and ¼ cup) of double (heavy) cream.Add 45g (½ a cup) of grated cheese and stir until the cheese has melted. Once the cheese has melted stir in a pinch of grated nutmeg and season with salt and pepper.Take 3 or 4 tablespoons of water form the cooking pasta and stir it into the sauce.
- Now add the spinach to the sauce. Stir it into the sauce until it is wilted.Drain the pasta and add it to the sauce. Toss the pasta in the sauce. And stir in the chopped basil.Serve immediately topped with the toasted pine nuts and some more grated cheese.
Notes
- Veggie Swaps– Try adding mushrooms, courgettes (zucchini), broccoli or peas.
- Pasta – I used penne pasta for this. Fusilli or Rotini work great as does linguine, spaghetti or tagliatelle.
- Cream – I use double cream (heavy cream) for this dish, this gave the best results. You could swap the cream for light cream cheese or mascarpone if you want to switch it up a bit.
- Cheese - I used Pecorino cheese for this recipe, any vegetarian parmesan style cheese will work well.
- Sun-dried tomatoes – if you can, choose good quality sundried tomatoes the kind you find in the deli counter or in jars filled with oil.
- Pine nuts – These are optional you can swap them for walnuts or almonds if you want. Or you could also swap the pine nuts for toasted breadcrumbs instead. The pine nuts are not an essential ingredient to this dish so if you want to omit them altogether you can.
- Pro-Tip – To remove the excess oil from the sun-dried tomatoes place each tomato flat on a chopping board. Use the back of a kitchen knife and scrape the tomato from the top to the bottom to remove the oil.
- Pro-Tip – Add 3 or 4 tablespoons of the water from the cooking pasta to your sauce, this will add more flavour to your sauce help it thicken and help the sauce stick to your pasta.
- Nutritional Information - is calculated using an online nutrition tool and is approximate. It is based on one serving and does not include extra cheese for serving.
- Weights and measurements - For US readers, I use Cuisipro measuring cups and spoons, and a Pyrex measuring jug for liquids. These are the industry standard. Cup/spoon volumes can differ from brand to brand, for accuracy, I recommend weighing all ingredients if possible.
Nutrition
Calories: 763kcal | Carbohydrates: 78.9g | Protein: 21.2g | Fat: 41.1g | Saturated Fat: 21.5g | Cholesterol: 208mg | Sodium: 545mg | Potassium: 700mg | Fiber: 2.2g | Sugar: 4.2g | Calcium: 217mg | Iron: 6mg
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Hi I made this a few weeks back and substituted cream cheese for the cream as that’s what I had in. I also added a few mushrooms. I knew I’d really like this dish but wasn’t sure about my hubby. He absolutely loved it and has requested it for dinner so I am making it again tonight. So easy to make and so delicious.
Hi Minty, I'm so happy to hear that you both loved it! I like your swap, adding cream cheese! I'll have to try this next time x
Can you skip the cream?
Hi Chenit, I made this last night without the cream and cheese and it was still really tasty. I skipped the pasta water too. Obviously, it won't be creamy though 😉 Hope this helps, Michelle x
Great recipe for the MOST fresh, flavorful pasta. Thank you for all the tips and variations, too!
Wow! This gorgeous pasta recipe has me salivating. All of my favorite things together. Love those pine nuts and sun dried tomatoes -- and I appreciate the tip on removing the excess oil from them. Thank you.
An awesome meal to have on the table in less than 30 minutes. Perfect for those busy nights running kids around.
Wow, this is so good. I added the pasta water, like you suggested, and it was so much more creamy.
I absolutely love sun dried tomatoes, especially in pasta! Combined with spinach and pine nuts, they are sooo good. This tasted fantastic.
Thanks so much Kristina, I'm so glad you liked it 🙂