Quick 30 Minute Orecchiette with Roasted Garlic Cream Sauce and Spring Peas
This creamy pasta dish is ready in minutes but tastes like it takes hours to prepare. Serve it with a fresh green salad and crusty bread. It's a crowd pleaser!
Ingredients
- 1 16 oz Package Orecchiette You could also use shells or elbow macaroni. The key is to use a pasta with a lot of surface when you have a cream sauce so that it can coat the pasta well.
- 1 Head Fresh Garlic
- 1 8 oz Package Fresh or Frozen Peas
- 2 Tablespoons Flour
- 12 ounces heavy cream, half and half, or milk You can adjust the fat content without it really affecting the creaminess of the pasta much, in my opinion. I typically opt for the middle of the road here, and for this dish I used half and half.
- 2 Tablespoons butter or olive oil
- sea salt Add salt to taste.
Instructions
- Take a small piece of tin foil and place garlic head unpeeled in center of foil. Drizzle with olive oil, and fold the foil up to cover it. Place in oven or toaster oven at 350 degrees for 20 minutes, or until garlic is very soft and mushy. This step can even be done beforehand.
- Meanwhile set a large pot of water to boil on the stove and prepare pasta according to package directions. Once you've drained the pasta, set it aside.
- In a measuring cup, mix two tablespoons flour with 1/2 cup of your milk, half and half, or cream.
- Peel roasted garlic. Don't worry if its mushy and falling apart. That's the consistency you want!
- Melt butter or warm olive oil in a medium saucepan.
- Add the remainder of your cream to the saucepan and keep stirring gently until it's just beginning to bubble. Slowly stir in roasted garlic.
- Add your cream and flour mixture (which should have a paste like consistency) to the saucepan slowly. Turn heat down to medium low/just before a simmer, and let sauce slowly thicken.
- Add pasta and peas and toss to coat.
- Sprinkle with salt to taste. I used approximately 1/2 teaspoon of French grey sea salt.
- Serve immediately.
Notes
This dish could also be prepared with broccoli instead of peas. You can use more or less garlic to taste. Roasted garlic can be made in advance, up to a day in advance, but I find that after it's been refrigerated it loses some of its flavor, so you may want top use a bit extra in that case.