Welcome to the week leading up to our, Son’s, 7th birthday. During the week leading up to our kids Birthday’s, I usually make their favorite meals. This is then followed up with their choice of Birthday breakfast and dinner. A tradition we have started in our house.
You are going to see posts of my son’s favorite meals. There are not many. In fact just a small handful. You see he is a picky eater. A very picky eater. Almost to the point of he won’t eat what is served if he doesn’t like it. Dairy is a big no, no for him. he just can’t do it. Cheese good luck. Only eats grilled cheese. Will not touch pizza, however he used to love pizza. Then one day he just stopped. The struggle has been real to get him to try pizza again. He keeps saying “when I’m older, I will try it again” so we keep saying “well you’re older, let’s try it again”. It’s and on going conversation in our house. So with that being said I have to hide dairy products in food. This dish is loaded with dairy. Next to spaghetti or spaghetti and meatballs (depending on his day), this is second his second favorite pasta dish.
So the history behind the Sun dried tomato spaghetti is this. It was one of those days, where, I needed to go grocery shopping but didn’t. A night of what is in the pantry and fridge and go from there. I create some of my best dishes on the whim. I’m more of a recipe creator than a recipe follower. Now since that night I have given a few twists and altered it over the years. This dish first started with bacon. Now you can use bacon, however we have taken a turn away from it. We enjoy this dish more so as one of our meatless dishes these days. I add the twists after I have served our son’s. He likes it just the way it is. So here is what I found in the house on that day for dinner. A jar of sun-dried tomatoes, cream cheese, white wine, tomato paste, parmesan, spaghetti noodles, chili flakes, garlic and bacon. What I do now is no bacon. Again, you can add it if you want, and it’s in the notes for the recipe below. Our daughter loves artichokes, so I add that at the end. I crisp half of them up and the other half are just straight out of the can. I also sometimes top with burrata and fresh basil. It’s well worth those extra ingredients.
How I made it tonight. Tonight I pan fried the artichoke hearts until they crisped up. This took about 5-8 mins. Once crisped up, I then set aside. BTW, I fully was cooking the pasta when I was making the sauce. start to finish your probably looking at 30 mins tops. I added some chili flakes to the hot oil so they could bloom and release the oil to give the dish some heat. Now I cook this whole dish in the sun dried tomato oil. Once I could smell the chili’s I added the tomatoes, tomato paste and garlic. Once that starts to heat, you then add the cream cheese and then start to let it melt with everything. You take the wine to deglaze the pan, add a good handful of parmesan cheese and let it cook, until it forms this smooth creamy blush sauce. Once the pasta is finished cooking you, take the cooked pasta, straight from the pot and place it into the sauce. You toss it all together and plate it however you desire.
Prep and cook time 30 mins
Serves 4
Ingredients
• 1 pound of spaghetti noodles
• 1/2 cup of marinated sun dried tomatoes in oil sliced.
• 1-2 garlic cloves
• as much chili flakes as you want
• 1/2 cup cream cheese
• 2/3 cup of white wine
• 1/2 cup shredded Parmesan cheese
• 1 Tbsp tomato paste
• 1 can quartered in water artichoke hearts
• Burrata
• fresh basil for on top for serving
• bacon optional see notes after recipe
Directions
1) In a large pot start to boil some water
2) Remove artichokes from the can and let drain. Pat dry. Once dry, take some of the oil from, the sun dried tomatoes and add to the pan. Add the artichokes and pan fry. This should take. 5-8 mins. Flipping once or twice. Once crisp set aside on a paper towel. Your pasta should now be added to your boiling water. Cook as directed or until a’dente
3) In the same pot take your chili flakes and cook, until the oils open from the pepper flakes. Now add your tomato paste, sun dried tomatoes and garlic. Stir all up and make sure the flavors blend together. Now add the cream cheese in dollops. This will help so the cream cheese will melt quicker.
4) Once your cream cheese has melted, deglaze with the white wine. Stir everything up as start to break it down. Bring to a boil and then turn to low.
5) check to see if your pasta is ready. If it’s ready, take it straight from the pot to the pan. Do not drain it. You want to save that starch water. Add more pasta water if you need to loosen up the sauce.
6) Plate your dish now. Top it with some burrata and freshly torn basil. Drizzles some olive oil on top and cracked black pepper. Enjoy!
Note: If you want to use bacon in this dish, chop the bacon in 1/2 inch pieces and pan fry them. Remove when crisp. Also remove all but a Tablespoon of bacon grease from the pan. Once bacon is cooked and grease is removed, you can add a little oil from the tomatoes and continue on with the recipe. Add the bacon back into the dish when you get add the pasta to the sauce.
Also if you can not have dairy for whatever reason it maybe, you can use none dairy cream cheese and just leave out the Parmesan.
