Marry Me Pasta is a meatless creamy pasta recipe inspired by the popular marry me chicken! So much flavor is packed into this pasta dish you won’t even miss the chicken.
This pasta sauce is truly an incredible combination of flavors. From the sun-dried tomatoes, to the crushed red pepper, from the fresh basil to the grated Parmesan…each bite you’re hit with a layer of flavors you’ll be going back for bite after bite!
My secret on getting the perfect sauce consistency? I create a sun-dried tomato paste that blends into the sauce. I like the flavor of sun-dried tomatoes, but never really liked the texture of getting large pieces in a bite. So after finely chopping them I pulse them in a blending device a few times to break them down even more! This really helps get an even tomato flavor throughout the dish and also helps get a richer color to the cream sauce!
After you’ve pulsed the tomatoes a few times the consistency should look like this.
IS MARRY ME PASTA VEGETARIAN?
This is an important one! Technically, no. Marry me pasta is meatless in the sense that we’re not cooking up any chicken to add to the dish, but the sauce is made with chicken bouillon powder which is not vegetarian.
Secondly, Parmesan cheese is not considered vegetarian since it contains an animal byproduct called rennet. Many grocery stores will sell vegetarian Parmesan cheese and it will be noted on the label.
But this is a great pasta recipe when you want something with an elevated blend of flavors, is super filling, but doesn’t require cooking any meat to go along with it.
SIDE DISH IDEAS
I can totally just eat a big bowl of pasta for dinner, but fill out the dinner table with some of these side dish ideas!
- Roasted or sautéed broccoli
- Garden salad
- Caesar salad
- Green beans, like these almond and lemon zest green beans
- Garlic bread
- Zucchini
And for more creamy pasta dish ideas, check out more of my favorites!
Creamy sun-dried tomato pasta
Alfredo tomato sauce
French onion pasta
Marsala cream sauce
Marry Me Pasta
A meatless creamy pasta recipe inspired by the popular marry me chicken!
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 20 minutes
- Total Time: 35 minutes
- Yield: 4-6 servings
- Category: Pasta
- Method: Saute
- Cuisine: American
Ingredients
1 and 1/2 tablespoons butter
4 cloves of garlic, grated
2 cups light cream
1 cup fresh grated Parmesan cheese
1/2 cup sun-dried tomatoes + 1 tablespoon oil from the jar
1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh basil
2 teaspoons chicken bouillon powder
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper (more if you want it to be spicy!)
3/4 box of thin linguini or other long noodle of your choice! If using short noodles use about 3 cups of dry noodles
Reserved pasta water
Instructions
1. To make the sun-dried tomato paste, measure out the 1/2 cup of sun-dried tomatoes. Chop them as finely as you can, then add to a blending device with 1 tablespoon of the oil from the jar. Pulse a few times, scrapping the sides of the container between pulses, until you get a coarse paste. See photo in the post above for the texture I got!
2. Bring your salted water to boil and cook the noodles, carefully reserve about 1/4 cup of the water to use later if you need to thin out the creamy sauce. After the noodles are cooked, strain them then set side.
3. While the pasta is cooking start making the sauce. Melt the butter in a large non-stick pan over medium heat. Add the grated garlic, crushed red pepper flakes, dried thyme, and chicken bouillon powder. Cook for 1 minute.
4. Pour in the light cream and heat for 5 minutes, alternating between medium and medium-low heat. A light simmer is OK but do not boil.
5. Add the fresh grated Parmesan cheese, sun-dried tomato paste, salt, pepper, garlic powder, and fresh basil. Stir to combine, simmer 5-7 minutes. Use the reserved pasta water to thin the sauce to your liking. Use a spoon to carefully remove any excess oil that pools on the top if you’d like.
6. Add in the cooked noodles and stir to coat. Turn off the heat and serve. Garnish with additional Parmesan cheese.
Notes
If there is too much oil from the sun-dried tomatoes pooling at the top of the cream sauce you can spoon off any excess.
While this doesn’t use cooked meat, the chicken bouillon powder means this is not fully vegetarian.
Leave a Reply