Pink Pasta Sauce, Perfect Quick 15 Minute Beetroot Pasta
This pink pasta sauce is the perfect dinner recipe when you are short on both time and patience. It's one of my family's most loved recipes. Not only is it quick to throw together, and very easy to make. Its vibrant colour means that nine times out of ten my little ones devour their dinner. No refusals or requests for alternatives. Just a straightforward, quick and easy family meal when bedtime is fast approaching.This pink pasta sauce is made using ingredients that I almost always have to hand. It can be easily adapted if I need to swap out one thing or another. No goats cheese, use cream cheese, or even creme fraiche instead. No pine nuts, use cashews or almonds. Adaptable and quick. You can add extra veg, or you can keep it plain and simple. This pink pasta sauce is really perfect thrown over any type of pasta. You can go small, large or stringy depending on your dinner time audience, and the age of your children. While its packed full of flavour it is also packed full of nutrition. The veg is well blended, and the beetroot makes for the most amazing pink pasta sauce!
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Equipment
- 1 Blender
- 1 Knife
- 1 Chopping board
- 1 Spoon
- 1 Pan
- 1 Sieve or colander
Ingredients
- 150 g Dried Orzo Pasta
- 125 g Cooked Beetroot (half a pack)
- 1 tsp Garlic powder (or 1/3 fresh garlic clove)
- 1-2 tbsp Lemon Juice (to taste)
- ½ tsp Good Quality Salt
- ¼ tsp Black Pepper
- 2 tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil
- 60 g Soft Goats Cheese or Cream Cheese
- 30 g Pine Nuts (Swap with cashews or peeled almonds)
- 1 tsp Dried Parsley (Swap with Basil or Oregano)
Instructions
- Add the orzo to a pan with double the amount of water to pasta. Add a splash of olive oil and place on a medium heat on the hob with the lid on. Stir occasionally to ensure the water doesn't over boil. The orzo will take about 10-12 minutes to cook. The pasta wants to be soft, not al dente when feeding your little ones.
- Add all the other ingredients to your blender or bullet blender.
- Blitz your ingredients until you have a smooth sauce. If the sauce seems a little too thick, add 2 tbsp of pasta water at a time to the blender. Blitz again until you have a smooth and glossy thick pasta sauce.
- Remove your orzo from the hob and drain any excess water (if needed).
- Add your sauce to the pasta pan along with the orzo.
- Gently heat until the orzo has taken on the beautifully rich pink colour of the sauce, and the sauce is warmed through.
- Serve warm to your toddler or newly weaned baby with a small spoon. If too hot (and in a hurry), add a little more goats or cream cheese to cool.
Notes
Be warned this pasta sauce will stain, so be sure to use a bib for your little ones.
The sauce and pasta can be kept separate until using. The pasta weight above assumes that you will cook and combine all the orzo and sauce at the same time. You can choose to cook less pasta (1/8th), adding just 1/8th of the sauce. The remaining sauce can be frozen into ice cube trays and added to cooked pasta straight from the freezer. Alternatively, freeze the combined pasta and orzo together in individual portions (using the method above), and reheat on the hob slowly with a little hot water to prevent the pasta from sticking to the pan. I find that both methods have about the same cook time, but that the pasta is very slightly softer using the second method.
Servings: 8 portions