Cream Cheese Pasta

Cream cheese pasta is easy vegetarian pasta made in just a few minutes, i.e. in less than 15 minutes. That's really great for your busy dinner or lunch recipes. You can easily veganize this and make vegan creamy pasta.

This pasta is made with cream cheese sauce and a few more ingredients that are readily available in every pantry. So you don't need to do any preparation. This is in fact a quick vegetarian dinner recipe that takes less than 15 minutes.

To this pasta with cream cheese, you can add any vegetables of choice like mushrooms, broccoli, or zucchini for extra nutrition without any extra effort or time.

Though I'm not a big fan of cheese, this cream cheese pasta is my kid's favorite one. And this way I also add a few veggies to the pasta too often like shredded carrots, broccoli, mushroom, peas, zucchini, peppers.

What you need to make this pasta?

Pasta - Any pasta will go well for this recipe. You can use spaghetti, penne, fusilli, rigate, etc. I love whole-grain pasta from brands like Delmonte and Durum pasta that are made with wheat semolina and healthier as compared to white pasta.

Cheese - Cream cheese for the pasta sauce. Also, the addition of parmesan cheese to this makes the pasta cheesy and yummy. Though I use only cream cheese to keep the cheese portion in moderation.

For vegan consider using vegan cheese sauce instead of cream cheese. Vegan cheese sauce can be made in many ways like cashews, white beans, mushrooms, etc.

Olive oil - Olive oil adds a nice flavor to the pasta. Saute garlic to infuse the flavor plus while serving drizzle some more extra virgin olive oil.

Garlic - Fresh garlic adds a nice flavor to the pasta. Substitute this with garlic powder.

Seasonings - oregano, chili flakes, salt, and pepper. Can skip chili flakes too.

What all can be added to this pasta?

carrots

broccoli

broccolini

zucchini

mushrooms

green peas

carrots

How to make pasta with cream cheese?

Cook pasta al dente

This is an important step in making any pasta dish. Pasta belongs to Italian cuisine and this is the Italian food rule to cooking pasta.

Heat water in a pot. Bring it to a boil. Add salt generously and then add pasta to the boiling water. Boil them till it's just cooked. Strain out once these are cooked.

Note - If you are not using them immediately, run it under fresh water to reduce the temperature a bit and stop overcooking the pasta in the heat itself. Otherwise, they may stick to one other.

Reserve some pasta water for further use while making the pasta sauce. This is an important step for adding more flavor.

Saute garlic in olive oil

Freshly minced garlic sauteed in olive oil infuses flavor to the pasta. Heat oil and add lots of fresh garlic pressed or minced. Saute on low flame so that the oil will absorb the garlic flavor nicely.

Make cream cheese sauce

To the pan add cream cheese followed by the pasta cooking water. Stir well to make it a smooth sauce consistency. Add parmesan cheese. Stir till smooth.

Season and mix pasta

Add the seasonings (oregano/ Italian seasonings) to the sauce. Then add cooked pasta and mix them gently and thoroughly. Sprinkle some more parmesan cheese, crushed black pepper and drizzle some more extra virgin olive oil.

No need to add extra salt since the pasta water already has salt in it. Add salt only if necessary.

Cream Cheese Pasta Recipe

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