Y’all know I love one pot pasta meals, and I know a lot of you do too. They’re quick, easy, and pack a lot of flavor into only one little dish that needs to be cleaned at the end. Creamy one pot pastas, in particular, have become my go-to comfort food. This time I paired the tangy flavor of sun dried tomatoes with garlic and Parmesan for a simple but indulgent One Pot Creamy Sun Dried Tomato Pasta.
Changes to the Original Sun Dried Tomato Pasta Recipe:
Many readers were having trouble with the original recipe, so I reformulated it a bit based on my experience creating one pot pastas since this recipe was originally posted (it’s now based on my One Pot Creamy Pesto Chicken Pasta). In particular, many people were having trouble with their milk curdling or the sauce not coming out smooth. Here is what I changed to create better and more consistent results:
- The milk is now added after the pasta simmers so the high heat and acidity from the tomatoes will not cause curdling.
- A small amount of cream cheese is added to the sauce to help stabilize and emulsify the Parmesan into the sauce.
- I also added a healthy dose of dried basil for a little more flavor!
Can I Substitute the Cream Cheese?
Cream cheese is great and keeping milk based sauces smooth and to help cheese melt smoothly without clumpig. If you just can’t stand cream cheese, you can replace half of the milk with heavy cream. This reduces the water content in the sauce, which will help the Parmesan emulsify properly.
Can I Add Meat?
Yes, this recipe is extremely flexible and can be made with or without meat. If you’d like to add chicken, you can dice up the chicken and sauté it in the skillet with the garlic in the beginning, or simply add sliced grilled chicken to the finished pasta. Italian sausage might also be great with this sun dried tomato pasta. Simply brown it in the skillet in the beginning with the garlic. Bacon would also be quite tasty. Brown the bacon in the skillet before the garlic, and drain off the excess fat before continuing with the recipe.
Tips for Cooking One Pot Pastas:
Getting one pot pastas just right can take some practice, so if you find you’re having trouble, here are a few tips:
- Stir every few minutes to keep the pasta from sticking to the bottom of the pot, or to itself.
- After the pot has been brought to a boil, turn the heat down to low, or just above low, so the liquid is still simmering. If the liquid is not simmering, the pasta will not cook. The temperature setting can vary depending on your stove top and cookware.
- Use heavy cookware. Skillets and pots that are thin on the bottom don’t heat evenly and do not yield good results with the one pot cooking method because some areas of the pot will be simmering, while other areas are not.
- Keep the lid in place at all times when not stirring. This holds in the steam and helps the pasta cook more evenly.
- Watch the pasta. One pot pastas are a little like riding a bike. You have to observe and adjust as you go. If the liquid is almost all absorbed before the pasta is tender, add a little more water. If the pasta is almost tender, but there is still a lot of liquid, allow it to simmer without a lid for the last couple of minutes.
One Pot Creamy Sun Dried Tomato Pasta
Servings 4Ingredients
- ½ cup sun dried tomatoes ($1.66)
- 2 Tbsp butter ($0.26)
- 2 cloves garlic, minced ($0.16)
- 8 oz. fettuccine ($0.67)
- 1/2 tsp dried basil ($0.05)
- Freshly cracked pepper ($0.05)
- 2 cups chicken broth* ($0.26)
- 2 oz. cream cheese ($0.30)
- 1 cups whole milk ($0.37)
- 1/4 cup grated Parmesan ($0.44)
Instructions
- Chop the sun dried tomatoes into small bite-sized pieces.
- Add the butter and garlic to a deep skillet or Dutch oven. Sauté the garlic over medium heat for about one minute, or until it is very fragrant.
- Add the fettuccine, sun dried tomatoes, dried basil, some freshly cracked pepper, and the chicken broth to the skillet. If needed, break the fettuccine in half to make sure it lays flat in the skillet and is submerged in broth.
- Place a lid on the skillet, turn the heat up to high, and bring the broth to a boil. As soon as it reaches a boil, give the pasta a good stir, replace the lid, and turn the heat down to low or the lowest setting that maintains a simmer.
- Let the pasta simmer in the broth for 7-10 minutes, or until most of the broth is absorbed and the pasta is tender, stirring every couple of minutes and always replacing the lid.
- Keeping the heat on low, cut the cream cheese into chunks and stir it into the pasta. Once the cream cheese has melted, add the milk and stir until a smooth sauce forms. Finally, add the grated Parmesan over top and stir until it has melted into the sauce. Serve with extra freshly cracked pepper, if desired.
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Notes
Nutrition
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Scroll down for the step by step Photos!
Try These Other Creamy One Pot Pasta Recipes:
- One Pot Creamy Pesto Chicken Pasta
- One Pot Creamy Cajun Chicken Pasta
- One Pot Bacon Broccoli Mac and Cheese
- One Pot Veggie Pasta
- One Pot Creamy Mushroom Pasta
How to Make Creamy Sun Dried Tomato Pasta – Step by Step Photos
Chop about ½ cup sun dried tomatoes into small bite-sized pieces. You want a little bit in every bite, instead of a few larger pieces throughout. I used dried, non-oil packed sun dried tomatoes for this recipe because I find them easier to work with and the leftovers easier to store (no refrigeration needed).
Add 2 Tbsp butter and two minced cloves of garlic to a deep skillet or Dutch oven. Sauté the garlic over medium heat for about 1 minute, or just until the garlic is a little softened and becomes really fragrant.
Add the chopped sun dried tomatoes, ½ tsp dried basil, some freshly cracked pepper, 8oz. fettuccine, and 2 cups chicken broth to the skillet. If your skillet or Dutch oven is not wide enough for the pasta to lay flat and submerged in the broth, you’ll want to break the pasta in half so it fits (I ended up breaking mine in half just after this photo).
Place a lid on the skillet, turn the heat up to high, and bring the broth up to a boil. As soon as it reaches a boil, give the pasta a good stir, replace the lid, and turn the heat down to low, or the lowest temperature that maintains a simmer. Continue to simmer the pasta for 7-10 minutes, stirring every couple of minutes (always replacing the lid), or until the pasta is tender and most of the liquid is absorbed. If the pasta dries out while it cooks, add a little more water. There should be a little bit of thick saucy liquid left in the skillet once the pasta is cooked.
Cut 2 oz. cream cheese into chunks, then stir it into the pasta until it has melted (still over low heat). Adding the cream cheese before the milk helps stabilize the sauce and prevent curdling.
Once the cream cheese has melted into the pasta, add 1 cup milk and stir to combine.
Finally, sprinkle ¼ cup grated Parmesan over the pasta, and stir until it has melted into the sauce (the pasta is still over low heat).
And now you have a deliciously creamy and slightly tangy sun dried tomato pasta in cream sauce!
Season the pasta with more freshly cracked pepper, if desired, and serve!
Ian making this tonight with the addition of Italian sausage and maybe peas. We love pasta with peas!!! Can’t wait!
Beyond fabulous! I fried up bulk hot and sweet sausage and removed it from the pan and then proceeded with recipe. Better than restaurant quality!!!
I have made this dish a few times and LOVE it! But I always run into the same problem: my fettuccine clumps together and sticks to itself. Have any ideas of how to avoid this?
Try stirring a little more often and more towards the beginning of the cooking time. That should help up break up the clumps just as they’re forming. Also, maybe try a larger pot if you can? That will give the pasta more room to move around.
I followed the recipe exactly, but mine curdled and stayed that way…still edible, but do you have any tips for keeping it from curdling? I used sundried tomatoes packed in oil, pacific organic chx broth and earth balance instead of butter…maybe one of those is the culprit? Or maybe I had the heat on too high while simmering…
I think the heat is the likely culprit. Try simmering at as low temperature as possible.
Same thing happened to me; I read to warm up the milk before you, going to try that next time
Yes! The fail-proof trick is to let the milk warm up to room temperature before adding it to the hot pan.
Omg, this is SO good. I followed recipe exactly and it turned out perfectly!! Man-o-man, SO good!! It’s going in my “keepers” book. I’ll most certainly be going back and looking at other recipes here. Many thanks!!
Also, I can see how one could add other food items to it to mix it up a bit. But so good as is.
We have made this recipe so many times in the past 2 weeks; we can’t get enough. I have made regular alfredo from scratch before, and this is so much easier with just as much flavor. Thanks for the great recipe. We will eat this again and again.
This was AWESOME. I made it for dinner tonight and it turned out great, (except I wasn’t so good at keeping the pasta from sticking to the bottom). I wanted it a little heartier, so I added about 10 frozen pre-cooked meatballs and some artichoke hearts that I bought at the olive bar at Kroger. It only added about $2.40 to the cost, since I had the meatballs in our fridge already. Highly recommend this dish. SO GOOD. My roommates kept “ooh-ing” and “ahh-ing” at it.
This was wonderful! So tasty and incredibly easy. I followed the recipe exactly and left the sauce to thicken at the end for about 5 minutes. Like all the other “one pot wonders” on your site this was a great easy meal to throw together after work! Thanks!
So great! I was pretty worried when it looked like my sauce was curdling because your pictures don’t have any of those white clumps – glad you had that warning in there! I sprinkled bacon on top, added baby spinach at the end because I didn’t feel like chopping up parsley and I sprinkled goat cheese instead of parmesan. Loved it – it’s so versatile! Thanks :)
Recipe is a 10!
This recipe is a 10!
I made this last night. My family loved it. This recipe is a 10!
Haha, shouldn’t you be charging for that kind of knwe?odgel!
I used this recipe last night. I changed it up a little, seared some chicken first, added a little white chili powder, used half&half instead of milk, and I cut up baby spinach and added that in at the end. It was great!
This looks so delicious and I’m going to try it tomorrow night. I’d love to add some chicken and bacon because I love that combo. At which point do you think I should add the meat in??? And should I add it in already cooked?
I would cook the meat in the skillet first, before any of the other ingredients are added. I’d then remove the bacon (you can leave the chicken in) and add the bacon back at the end so that it stays crispy.
This came out just perfect. I had shredded asiago, and leftover ham that I chopped up. Not sure what the others did to make it “soupy” as fettuccine was al dente and not soupy at all. Thanks!