It’s rich and creamy and loaded with flavour. You can even make it a vegetarian dish by just leaving out the chicken. This is the type of pasta you get in a restaurant. It’s all about taste. It’s unapologetic. There’s no consideration whatsoever given to anything but taste in fact. Butter, cream, cheese and pasta. Little bits of sun-dried tomatoes and chicken to mix it up. Fresh crushed black pepper, fresh basil and chili flakes to finish it off. But it’s simple too. Straight-forward. Not too fussy. Great for family dinners.
Sun-dried tomatoes and cream are a killer combo
And the sun-dried tomatoes add a little something special. A burst of tomato flavour. It takes what could be an otherwise heavy dish and lightens it. Butter, cream and cheese. That’s pretty much an Alfredo. But when you add the tomatoes everything changes. And that opens up the door for the basil. Two simple ingredients and all of a sudden it’s penne with sun-dried tomato cream sauce. Completely different.
Finish cooking the pasta in the sauce
One mistake that people make a lot. You need to finish cooking your pasta in the sauce. That’s pretty much a rule. It’s a seemingly trivial extra step. But it’s critical. Do this and everything comes together. When you pour sauce overtop pasta you are making pasta with sauce. They sit in two layers. Even if you mix them up they aren’t really melded. Cook them together and it’s pasta and sauce. You don’t know where one ends and the other begins. There’s a big difference. If you’ve never tried this technique you should try it. Penne with sun-dried tomato cream sauce is not something you should eat every day. But it is something you should treat yourself to every now and then.
