Creamy and packed with green veggies-this one-pot pasta is super-easy to make.
| Level: | Easy |
| Total: | 35 min |
| Active: | 35 min |
| Yield: | 4 servings |
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
- 2 cloves garlic, chopped
- 8 ounces farfalle pasta (bowtie; see Cook’s Note)
- Kosher salt
- 1/3 bunch asparagus (about 6 ounces), trimmed and cut into 1-inch pieces
- 7 ounces small broccoli florets (from 1 medium head; about 3 1/2 cups)
- 2/3 cup frozen peas, thawed
- 3 ounces cream cheese, cut into pieces, at room temperature
- 1/3 cup heavy cream
- 2 tablespoons chopped fresh basil, plus additional for serving
- 1/2 teaspoon grated lemon zest
Instructions
- Heat the olive oil in a 4-quart saucepan over medium heat. Add the garlic and cook, stirring until softened, about 1 minute. Add the pasta, 1 teaspoon salt and 3 cups water and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Continue to cook, stirring occasionally so the pasta doesn’t clump together, 4 minutes. Stir in the asparagus and broccoli and cook, stirring, until bright green and almost crisp-tender, about 3 minutes. Add the peas and cook 2 minutes longer, stirring. Reduce the heat to low and stir in the cream cheese, cream, basil, lemon zest and 1 1/2 teaspoons salt until the cream cheese is completely melted. Divide among 4 bowls. Serve with additional basil.
Nutrition Facts
| Serving Size | 1 of 4 servings |
| Calories | 453 |
| Total Fat | 23 g |
| Saturated Fat | 10 g |
| Carbohydrates | 52 g |
| Dietary Fiber | 4 g |
| Sugar | 5 g |
| Protein | 13 g |
| Cholesterol | 51 mg |
| Sodium | 516 mg |
Reviews
This recipe has gone into our regular dinner rotation and we have it at least once a month. I’ve followed the recipe exactly & made minor changes & we’ve liked both. Changes: use less cream cheese & a splash of milk for a lighter sauce; use only broccoli for the veg; sub chopped kale or snap peas for the asparagus. It’s forgiving, fast and consistently delicious.
The greens taste really great with the cream cheese. Bacon also fits in well.
Using whole wheat pasta is a good variation.
Be mindful of what people are saying with salt, maybe keep tasting and add to your preference. I use sea salt and didn’t have a problem.
I disagree with the reviews of salt, taste as you go. Use correct salt. It was ok, bland. Needed a bit more love. I’ll use the idea again and add my own ingredients also.
I did add chicken for my husband and tofu for me. It’s a great basic idea for a meal to try then recreate as your own!
I did add chicken for my husband and tofu for me. It’s a great basic idea for a meal to try then recreate as your own!
This was fabulous…it was my 1st time creating a cream sauce and it turned out wonderfully.
Made this with some of the suggestions, added a few fresh herbs and sprinkled scallions at the end. Super easy. Can see using this again and again just adding what ever needs to be used up in the fridge. As for the salt I don’t think people are using kosher salt if they were complaining it was to salty. Remember a cup of table salt has twice the salting power of kosher salt. So about half if all you have is table salt.
Nice quick dish and I was interested in the one pot solution, so I gave it a try. Since I live at the beach and it is Memorial Day weekend, getting to the supermarket was impossible. Substitutions were necessary. No bow ties in the cupboard, so I used half Casarecce and Campanella. Not my normal pastas but I bought the combo pack at Costco to try new. After reading reviews of a bland dish, added fresh thyme and oregano with the basil and dried tomatoes and shiitake mushrooms. No heavy cream in the frig, only no-fat milk so I doubled the cream cheese and added a couple of pats of butter. Instead of just water, I added some chicken boullion and only used about a teaspoon of salt. Also had a few cooked chicken breasts in the frig, so I cut those up & added, along with a few turns of my white pepper grinder. By the time I finished it was not exactly the same dish, but it had a lot of flavor. Pretty good with a salad of shredded lettuce, tomato, guacamole and topped with Mexican chesse, with a little extra virgin olive oil and balsamic vinegar drizzled in top. Not a bad dinner.
Well, as far as simplicity and ease, it was all that and then some, but it didn’t have much flavor. It was quite bland. Were I to do it again, and I might, I would definitely add some more herbs and spices to the mix. The consistency and texture were fine. Just not a lot of flavor.
I just made this, with kosher salt, and only added 1/2 t of salt at the end. I think the “1” is a typo and shouldn’t be there. The 1/2 t of salt was perfect. The recipe was very good and easy because I did the prep work earlier in the day.
Easy!
I chose to make this because it had a good poetion of vegetables. Unfortunately, this recipe was way too salty to eat with the 2 1/2 teaspoons total that it indicates. I plan to make it again with less salt because it was obvious the recipe would taste very good with less salt. Plus it was easy to make.