…other wise know as Creamy Pesto & Sun-Dried Tomato Pasta. Green, White & Red!

Ingredients

• 2 teaspoons olive oil
• 1/3 small onion, chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, sliced
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 2 teaspoons all-purpose flour
• 2/3 cup milk
• 1/3 pinch salt
• 1/3 pinch pepper
• 1/2 cup grated Romano cheese
• 1/3 cup prepared basil pesto
• 10 or so sun-dried tomatoes, chopped

This will make enough sauce for 2 people. You can double it as you need to.

Give yourself about 10 minutes of prep time and 20 minutes of cooking time.

Steps

Bring a pot of lightly salted water to a boil and add pasta cooking it to the way you like it. (I always go for al dente!)

Meanwhile, heat oil in a skillet over medium heat. Add onion and saute until translucent and tender. Stir in garlic and butter and saute until garlic is soft, about one minute.

Dissolve flour into the milk then had to the skillet. Season with salt and pepper and let simmer for 4 minutes. Make sure to stir constantly so that the sauce thickens.

Add the cheese and stir until melted. Next add the pesto and sun-dried tomatoes. Cook for about 4 minutes or until the sauce it heated through out.

If your pasta is not quite ready yet you can leave the sauce at a lower heat, making sure to stir

Tips from the Chef…

I randomly had bits of all the ingredients needed for this recipe in my fridge and it worked out perfect to use up all the leftovers.

I had a jar of pesto sauce that I bought for an appetizer because I didn’t have time to make it from scratch. The pesto was very strong in taste and very oily, but by adding it to a cream sauce it brought the taste down to a more mild level and the extra oil in it helped to coat the pasta perfectly. If I were to do this again however, I would most likely make the pesto from scratch so that I had more control of the flavours.

As far as pasta choices go, I made this using Fusilli, though you could use any type of pasta really. Linguine would be a classic option. The only thing to watch for is the cooking time of your pasta. Depending on the thickness you may have to start the cooking process before you start the sauce. Its just a matter of figuring out the timing. Remember the sauce can sit at a low heat once it is done if your pasta is not quite ready yet.

If you would like to add more substance to the pasta you can add some pre cooked chicken into the sauce to warm up, or you could add some fresh shrimp to cook in with the sauce.

When I sat down to eat this it tasted like I had ordered it at a restaurant, absolutely amazing!  Next time I might add some cream cheese to it to make it a million time more rich and creamy. YUM!

Enjoy!