White Pasta Sauce

by In The Kitchen With Matt

4.9K504

Intro: White Pasta Sauce

In this instructable I will show you how to make a white pasta sauce. This easy homemade white pasta sauce recipe is my favorite white sauce for pasta. How can you go wrong with cream, butter, bacon, cheese, tomatoes, spinach, and garlic? There isn't anything in that sentence I didn't like, haha. This sauce is a great sauce to build upon. Instead of using chicken, use shrimp. Don't like bacon? That is okay leave it out, and add a bit of olive oil instead. Lots of possibilities. If I can do it, you can do it. Let's get started!

Don't forget to follow me and check out my other instructables. :)

Follow the easy steps below or watch the video tutorial or do both. :)

STEP 1: Ingredients/Tools

You can print the recipe here on my website.

Ingredients:

  • 2 to 4 strips of bacon (I always use 4)
  • 1/2 of a medium onion, about 1 cup chopped. (150g)
  • 5 to 6 cloves of fresh garlic, crushed/minced
  • 1/4 cup of unsalted butter (57g)
  • 1 cup of heavy cream (add more to thin sauce out or milk) (240ml)
  • 3/4 cup of cut grape tomatoes (150g)
  • 1 1/2 cups of cheese (mozzarella parmesan blend)
  • 1/2 tsp. garlic powder (2g)
  • 1/4 tsp. of ground pepper (1g)
  • 1/2 tsp. Italian seasoning (optional)
  • 1/2 tsp. of salt (taste it first before adding in the salt)
  • 1 cup of diced pre-cooked chicken (125g)
  • 1 handful of fresh spinach
  • 1 box (1lb) of penne pasta noodles (454g) cooked for 10 minutes in boiling water, then drained.

Tools:

  • Large pot or skillet
  • spatula
  • spoon

STEP 2: Bacon Oh Yeah

First take a skillet or sauce pot and heat it on medium heat. Then add in your bacon. Let the bacon cook for 5 to 6 minutes.

*Note if you want this a little bit healthier after the bacon has cooked a bit, remove the grease and add a couple tablespoons of olive oil to replace it.

STEP 3: Onions, Flavor Time

Now let's add in our onions and let them cook down a bit in that bacon grease. Onions are great flavor enhancers, I don't recommend leaving them out of this sauce.

STEP 4: Garlic and Butter

Two of my favorite words are garlic and butter. So much flavor in those two ingredients. Add them to the pan with the bacon and onions. First add the garlic and let them cook down a bit, then add in the butter and allow it to melt.

STEP 5: Cream

Now we need to add in the cream. If you want your white sauce to be less thick you may add in more cream or some milk a little bit later. Allow the cream to heat up stirring the sauce occasionally.

STEP 6: Tomatoes

Next we are going to add in some sliced grape tomatoes, you can use whatever tomatoes that you want. I like the look of the slice grape tomatoes so I always use those. Let the tomatoes cook in the sauce for a few minutes to soften up.

STEP 7: So Cheesy

No after our tomatoes have had a chance to soften up a bit add in the cheese. This is a mozzarella and parmesan cheese blend. Stir the cheese into the sauce until it is completely melted.

STEP 8: Spices

Now give the sauce a little taste. You may want to add in more salt. I also usually add in pepper and garlic powder. Didn't I already mention I like garlic? It is very important to taste the sauce before adding extra seasonings especially extra salt. The bacon and cheese will have already added a certain amount of saltiness by themselves.

STEP 9: Chicken and Spinach

Now we need to finish that sauce off with some chicken and spinach. I always add the spinach in last because it cooks down really quickly. Use precooked chicken, I normally get it form the deli or use leftover chicken that I cooked for something else. When making pastas most people will advise you to add your pasta noodles to the skillet or pot with your noodles. So cook your noodles, penne noodles in this case, about a minute less then you normally would. Then pour the noodles in with your simmering pasta sauce. They will cook the rest of the way in the sauce. Normally I won't use two pans like I show here, but the stainless steel pan just looks nicer on camera. :) After stirring in the noodles for about a minute your pasta is ready to serve.

STEP 10: Enjoy!

Enjoy that yummy white pasta sauce with your favorite noodles. Penne is always my favorite noodle of choice. But this same sauce works great with other noodles as well. And other proteins like shrimp instead of chicken, etc.

STEP 11: Video Tutorial

You can print the recipe here on my website.

Now watch those steps in action by checking out the video tutorial. :)

8 Comments

doer_1 4 years ago

Matt,
Very nice recipe,...... but as a public figure, you should learn the difference between Pasta, and noodles, to keep the misinformation to a minimum.

Pasta is a food item of Italian origin and is a generic term used to
refer to a variety of dishes made using unleavened dough. Mixing wheat
flour with water and giving this paste various shapes gives birth to the
food item called pasta.
Pasta, under Italian law, can only be made with durum wheat.

In addition to wheat flour, elsewhere, pasta can be made from the dough of grains
and cereals too. There are also varieties called fresh pasta where eggs
are added to make the dish. However, it is dried pasta that dominates
the recipes made of pasta around the world.


Noodles, on the other hand are of Chinese origin and perhaps the most popular staple food item
around the world that is used for not just snacks but also for meals.
Noodles are made from unleavened dough of wheat. One characteristic
feature of noodles is their shape as all over the world they are found
in long and thin strips. However, there are also available waves,
strings, tubes and many other shapes of noodles. Noodles are very easy
to cook as all they need is boiling water to become soft and edible.
However, there are also people who like them fried. Noodles are mostly
made form wheat flour though there are also noodles made of rice,
potato, acorn etc.
Rice noodles like "Ramen" are noodles but not pasta.
According to the standards published by the National Pasta Association, noodles must contain at least 5.5% egg solids by weight.

In The Kitchen With Matt 4 years ago

Hey thanks for your feedback. While you are not wrong, you are wrong. haha. It is perfectly acceptable to say pasta noodles. Yes noodles often refer to Chinese food. With that said, it is very common in the United States and other countries to say pasta noodles. Here are a few articles from some pretty popular sites:
https://www.thrillist.com/eat/nation/every-important-italian-noodle-illustrated
https://www.innit.com/learn/grocery/ingredient-guides/top-10-pasta-shapes
https://www.webstaurantstore.com/guide/692/types-of-pasta.html
https://www.plated.com/morsel/12-types-pasta-noodles-use/
And the list goes on and on. While the "Correct" way is only to say Pasta it is perfectly acceptable to say pasta noodles.