You know I love pasta, it’s such a great meal for any day of the week and you can go in so many different directions with it. Today’s pasta is super creamy made with goat cheese which is such a delicious ingredient.

I love traditional cream sauces like an alfredo but making a roux can be annoying sometimes. I’ve made pastas with a cream cheese sauce before and that was delicious but this time I stepped it up with the goat cheese for an added richness and a little bit of a tangy flavour too. The key to the sauce though is reserving some of the starchy pasta water. It really helps to melt down the goat cheese and bring the whole sauce together as well as thicken it slightly.

And with this pretty rich sauce I really wanted to add some vegetables just to balance out the creamy aspect, as well as add some more nutrition into this meal. I used some green beans but you could use broccoli or cauliflower, but even kale would work well here. I really like the color contrast that it gives too

Another good ingredient that I used in here was the sun-dried tomatoes. I just love them on pizza and in grilled sandwiches but especially in pastas. I love what they bring to a dish – a little sweetness and a little chewiness. These also give some color to the pasta, it kind of looks very festive with the red and green.

As for seasonings in this pasta, I wanted to keep it relatively simple. I started with sauteed shallot (or onion) and garlic because every good pasta starts with those. Then I just added some chili flakes, black pepper, a little lemon juice and a touch of parmesan cheese. That’s all you need to make a really great pasta. There’s a little bit of heat from the chili flakes and pepper but it really is balanced from the creamy dairy.

This is just such a great dinner, I can’t say it enough. You can be eating in about 20 minutes. The recipe below is the perfect amount for one generous serving but you can easily just multiply to feed more people. Enjoy!

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Ingredients:

• 1 cup short pasta, raw
• 1/2 cup raw green beans (substitutes: see NOTE)
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 shallot, thinly sliced (or 1/4 cup sliced red onion)
• 2 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
• 1/4 cup chopped sundried tomatoes
• 1/4 cup pasta water*
• 1/3 cup goat cheese
• 1/2 tsp chili flakes
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
• 1/8 tsp black pepper
• 1 tbsp grated parmesan cheese, plus more for serving

NOTE: You can substitute other vegetables for green beans. Some good options are broccoli or cauliflower, cut in small florets, or kale, roughly chopped. Still follow the recipe as written, but using your substitution.

Directions:

1. Bring pot of water to boil. Add generous amount of salt and then stir in the pasta. Cook according to directions on package, adding green beans in last 2 minutes of cooking. Drain, but save 1/4 cup pasta water for later*.
2. In the same pot, oven medium heat, add the olive oil. Saute the shallot and garlic until beginning to brown, 2-3 minutes. Add the sundried tomatoes and let them begin to heat through.
3. Add reserved pasta water, followed by goat cheese. Stir to combine and get the goat cheese melting. Mix in chili flakes, lemon juice, black pepper and parmesan cheese.
4. Toss in pasta and green beans and ensure everything is fully coated in sauce. Serve hot with additional parmesan cheese on top.