Cream Cheese Pasta {10 Minute Meal}
This Cream Cheese Pasta recipe is a super speedy 10 minute midweek meal. Add whatever vegetables or meat you have in the fridge and you're good to go.
Servings: 4 Servings
Ingredients
- 300 g Dried pasta See notes
- 1 tsp Olive oil See notes
- 250 g Bacon Cut into small pieces
- 1 Onion Peeled and finely chopped | See notes
- 2 Cloves Garlic Peeled and finely chopped | See notes
- 3 Courgettes Trimmed and cut into small pieces
- 200 g Petit pois Frozen
- 250 g Cream cheese Any kind
- Salt and freshly ground black pepper
- 50 g Parmesan cheese Grated | Optional
Instructions
- Put the pasta into boil in a large pan of salted water.
- While the pasta is cooking, heat the oil in a large saucepan or deep frying pan, and fry the bacon, onion, garlic and courgettes until softened and starting to brown. (This will take about the same time as the pasta.)
- 3-4 Minutes before the pasta is due to finish cooking, add in the peas with the boiling pasta to cook in the same water.
- Take the pan with the fried vegetables. Stir in the cream cheese, salt and pepper, parmesan and a couple of ladles of the water from the pasta pan. Stir until smooth.
- Drain the pasta and add to the vegetables and sauce.
Notes
Pasta: Whichever shape of dried pasta you prefer is fine. Check the cooking time on the packet
Oil: If I'm using a very fatty bacon, like pancetta lardons, I leave out the oil as it's not needed
Onions and garlic: I use pre prepared frozen, chopped here. An onion weighs about 150g/5oz, so replace with that pre chopped weight. Garlic is about 5g per clove so I use 10g (2 tsp)
Cream cheese: Use whichever you prefer to buy. Don’t feel like you need to use Philadelphia here. Supermarket own brands are fine. You can use reduced fat if you like (I often do). The sauce will have a slightly different texture, not as rich and creamy, but it’s still really delicious
Vegetarian: Simply omit the bacon or replace with a meat substitute if you want to enjoy this as a veggie pasta dish
Nutrition
Calories: 618kcal | Carbohydrates: 77g | Protein: 37g | Fat: 18g | Saturated Fat: 9g | Cholesterol: 42mg | Sodium: 1765mg | Potassium: 900mg | Fiber: 7g | Sugar: 14g | Vitamin A: 1120IU | Vitamin C: 50mg | Calcium: 304mg | Iron: 3mg