15 Minute Creamy Garlic Pasta Recipe (2024)

FAQs

How do you keep pasta creamy for a long time? ›

Pimp the sauce out with a little pasta water before you drain the pasta. Pasta water is full of starch and adding some to your sauce will help to “glue” it to the pasta.

Cornstarch: Make a slurry of half water, half cornstarch and whisk until smooth. Cornstarch is a powerful thickener, so start by whisking in no more than 1 tablespoon of the mixture per 2 cups of simmering sauce; stir and simmer for 2 minutes, check the thickness, and repeat with more slurry as needed.

Recipes like this one can be made with half and half or fresh cream. Either one will give a wonderful balance of flavor and creaminess. Can you use milk instead of cream in pasta sauce? Whole milk or even a dairy-free milk, like almond milk, will work just fine in this recipe.

If the pasta still looks (and tastes) too dry, keep adding the starchy water, a little bit at a time, until the sauce is silky and as creamy as you would like it to be. If the pasta water is well-seasoned, it'll enhance the sauce instead of diluting it.

Cheese and dairy give sauces creaminess while butter and oil give them richness. You also don't need to use a lot — these are just for finishing and rounding out the flavors in a sauce. Whole Milk or Heavy Cream: Add a splash and let the sauce simmer for a few minutes to thicken.

For a too-thin sauce, try adding a slurry (equal parts flour and water, whisked together) or beurre manie (equal parts softened butter and flour, kneaded together to form a paste)—both are ideal thickeners for rich and creamy sauces, such as steak sauce recipes.

When you sizzle garlic, it will quickly turn a nutty brown, bittering the garlic—and brown garlic can impart an acrid bite. Cook your garlic until it becomes a deep golden color, with the earliest brown beginnings. Then, add your tomatoes.

Make some pasta sauce, add about one clove per serving and enjoy your dinner. If, while eating, you feel the sauce needed more garlic, bump it up next time. If you feel one clove per serving was too much, decrease the garlic next time.

Take 1 tablespoon of cornstarch and 1 tablespoon of water. Mix this in a bowl and pour it into the cream mix. This is called a slurry and it is an easy way to thicken sauces without using flour!

Whole milk is an excellent substitute for heavy cream. It adds richness to your pasta sauce without the excess fat. Simply simmer your favourite pasta sauce with whole milk until it thickens to your desired consistency. The result is a velvety and indulgent sauce that pairs beautifully with pasta.

Can I use milk instead of heavy cream? ›

Similarly to half-and-half, milk makes a good heavy cream substitute when it's combined with melted butter. Combine 3/4 cup milk and 1/4 cup melted butter for every cup of heavy cream. This mixture is not suitable for whipping. Best for: cooking and baking.

Yes, heavy cream and heavy whipping cream are the exact same thing. The confusion lies in the fact that they're sold by different brands under two different names. According to the US Food and Drug Administration's labelling standards, heavy cream must contain at least 36 percent milk fat.

Add a spoonful of pasta water to help thin the sauce if you want and keep it sticking, because starch helps it to stick and will also keep it as creamy as possible. Stir it often so that it won't stick but will stay creamy. Just before serving it, add a small pat of butter and a hint of cream on top. That's it.

Add the garlic and pepper and cook for a further minute or two. Nothing should be browning so turn the heat to low if you need. Add the tomato paste and whisk to combine, cooking for a minute or two. With the heat still low - medium add the cream and whisk to combine evenly.

Oil trick

This is as simple as adding a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil before putting it in the refrigerator. Do not forget to stir well so that the oil is impregnated throughout the pasta and does not remain at the bottom of the container.

that's what I do - put the pasta and sauce in a pan with a little extra cream or half&half, whatever you have handy. As it gets warm, stir everything together to loosen the pasta and pseudo-emulsify the sauce.

Using Leftover Pasta

Reheat the sauce separately and then combine with the hot pasta as you would if you had made it fresh. If you are reheating sauced pasta, it is ideal to do so in the oven at 350 F for 20 minutes and to cover the dish with aluminum foil to lock in the moisture and prevent the pasta from drying out.