Rose Primavera Pasta. Creamy tomato pasta packed with a variety of vegetables. A quick and easy pasta dish, ready in 30 minutes or less!
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This is a creamy tomato pasta sauce with fresh vegetables and bowtie pasta. It's a simple and easy meal perfect for a busy weeknight for the family. What makes this rose primavera pasta so good is the light cream cheese combined with a great-tasting marinara sauce.
Quality marinara sauce is the key to making this dish taste delicious. If it's not a sauce you could drink on its own, it's not good enough - that's my trick to telling. Furthermore, marinara sauce is essentially a tomato basil sauce.
I love making this tomato pasta dish when I have leftover veggies in the fridge and for my husband. He's not a big meat-eater so this is a dish I love spoiling him with!
Ingredients
Please scroll down to below recipe card for exact measurements.
- Bowtie Pasta: or penne pasta or rotini pasta. I wouldn't recommend using a stringy pasta like spaghetti, linguine or fettuccine.
- Marinara Sauce: this is a key ingredient so make sure to use a good quality marinara sauce that you enjoy!
- Broccoli Crown: broken into florets
- Red Onion: or substitute with white onion
- Bell pepper: feel free to use orange, yellow or green bell peppers
- Fresh Garlic Cloves
- Fresh Basil Leaves: not the dried kind. The fresh basil takes this dish to the next level!
- Light cream cheese: to give this pasta that creamy cheesy flavor! You may substitute with heavy cream.
- Reserved pasta water: to help thicken sauce and it also helps the sauce stick to the pasta.
- Extra Virgin Olive Oil
- Salt and pepper to taste
How to Make Rose Primavera Pasta
- In a large pot of water, bring to a boil and season with 2 teaspoon of salt. Boil pasta according to package directions until al dente. Reserve ½ cup pasta water for later. Strain pasta and set aside.
- Heat olive oil in a large pan on medium heat. Fry onions and garlic until softened, about 2-3 minutes. Toss in bell peppers and broccoli, cover and cook until broccoli turns vibrant green.
- Add marinara sauce, cream cheese and reserved pasta water. Use a spatula to break down the cream cheese until there are no lumps and mix everything together until well combined. The sauce should look like a smooth rose colour.
- Bring sauce to a boil for a couple minutes to thicken the sauce. Toss in cooked pasta along with basil. Remove off heat.
- Season with salt and pepper to taste and garnish with more fresh basil.
Storage & Reheating
Leftovers will last up to 4 days stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator. To reheat, microwave for 2-3 minutes until hot or reheat in a pan on medium heat.
Expert Tips
- Use good quality marinara sauce. This is so important for a good tomato pasta dish.
- Don't overcook the pasta. Boil until al dente, usually this is 1 minute subtracted from the total cooking time.
- Save the hot pasta water for the sauce! This helps makes the sauce thicken and stick to the pasta.
- Fresh basil is the way to go! Don't use the dried stuff.
Other recipes you may like!
📖 Recipe
Quick & Easy Rose Primavera Pasta
Ingredients
- 4 cups pasta bow tie kind
- 1 crown broccoli broken into florets
- ½ red onion large diced
- 1 orange bell pepper diced
- 4 cloves garlic sliced
- ½ cup fresh basil roughly chopped
- 3 cups marinara sauce make sure it's a good quality one you enjoy!
- ¾ cup light cream cheese
- ½ cup reserved hot pasta water
- 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
- salt to taste
- black pepper to taste
Instructions
- In a large pot of water, bring to a boil and season with 2 teaspoon of salt. Boil pasta according to package directions until al dente. Reserve ½ cup pasta water for later. Strain pasta and set aside.
- Heat olive oil in a large pan on medium heat. Fry onions and garlic until softened, about 2-3 minutes. Toss in bell peppers and broccoli, cover and cook until broccoli turns vibrant green.
- Add marinara sauce, cream cheese and reserved pasta water. Use a spatula to break down the cream cheese until there are no lumps and mix everything together until well combined. The sauce should look like a smooth rose colour.
- Bring sauce to a boil for a couple minutes to thicken the sauce. Toss in cooked pasta along with basil. Remove off heat.
- Season with salt and pepper to taste and garnish with more fresh basil.
Sol
Rose pasta is my favourite and this was so tasty especially with all the vegetables.