Creamy Roasted Garlic Pasta Sauce

Full of mellow roasted garlic flavor, this Creamy Roasted Garlic Pasta Sauce uses only 2 tbs of cream. All the richness you crave without too much decadence. After roasting a whole bunch of garlic this week – enjoying it on avocado toast and lots of other recipes – this creamy sauce was a great end to my week long adventure with roasted garlic.

The sauce is made mostly with pasta water with loads of roasted garlic and a bit of parmesan cheese. Since it is a garlic rich sauce, topping it with fresh ingredients like parsley and/or thyme and juicy cherry tomatoes to balance it well. You could used store-bought roasted garlic, but why deprive yourself of the wonderful smell of garlic roasting in your kitchen – I posted the simple roasting method here.

You simmer and whisk the cheese and garlic cloves together, mashing the garlic as everything warms and melts together.  Add cream. Add cooked pasta and you get this.

Tossed with cherry tomatoes, parsley, a few dashes of red pepper flakes and lots of freshly ground pepper, this is as delicious as the photo looks. In under 30 min, you can be enjoying the Creamy Roasted Garlic Pasta Sauce you’re now drooling over in the photo above.

Creamy Roasted Garlic Pasta Sauce

 

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Prep time

5 mins

Cook time

25 mins

Total time

30 mins

 

Author: OatandSesame

Serves: 4

Ingredients

• ¾ pound penne or fusilli*
• ¾ cup pasta water (from cooking the pasta above)
• 2 tsp Kosher salt (to season pasta water)
• ½ cup loosely packed roasted garlic cloves (about 3 bulbs)
• see garlic roasting recipe here
• ½ cup grated Parmesan cheese plus extra to top
• 2 tablespoons heavy cream
• ½ cup freshly chopped parsley
• 1 cup sliced cherry tomatoes
• a few dashes red pepper flakes
• freshly ground pepper, to taste
• A few sprigs thyme, optional

Instructions

1. Cook pasta in salted water (2 tsp Kosher salt), reserving ¾ cup pasta water.
2. Add the pasta water, roasted garlic and parmesan to a large skillet. Over medium-med. high heat, whisk until thicker and creamy. Mashing the garlic as it warms with the back of a wooden spoon. Remove any crispy bits of roasted garlic that don't melt into the sauce. The sauce should come together in about 7 minutes. It doesn't look like a lot of sauce, but it's rich and a light coating isall that's needed to provide amazing garlic flavor.
3. Stir in cream followed by pasta.
4. Season with herbs and peppers. Top with cherry tomatoes and extra grated parmesan.

Notes

* the shape of the pasta you use will effect how much sauce you have to coat the pasta. Fusilli will hold more sauce in its spiral shape than penne.

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