Tried & Tasted·Italian·January 2026

One-Pot Creamy Tuscan Pasta

Weeknight dinner that looks and tastes like a restaurant meal. One pot. Twenty-five minutes.

ItalianPastaQuick
🔪

5 min

Prep

🔥

20 min

Cook

🍽

2-3 people

Serves

📊

Easy

Level

This is my "I don't want to cook but I want to eat well" recipe. One pot, minimal chopping, maximum flavor. It looks and tastes like a restaurant meal but takes 25 minutes and dirties exactly one pot.

🧾

Ingredients

●300g penne or rigatoni
●2 tbsp olive oil
●3 cloves garlic, minced
●200g cherry tomatoes, halved
●Large handful of spinach
●1/2 cup sun-dried tomatoes, chopped
●1 cup heavy cream
●1/2 cup parmesan, grated
●Italian seasoning, salt, pepper
●Fresh basil to finish
👩‍🍳

Method

1

Cook pasta one minute short of al dente. Reserve 1 cup pasta water. Drain.

2

In the same pot, heat olive oil. Sauté garlic for 30 seconds.

3

Add cherry tomatoes, cook until they start to blister (3-4 min).

4

Add sun-dried tomatoes, spinach, cream, and half the parmesan.

5

Toss in the pasta and a splash of pasta water. Stir until creamy.

6

Season generously. Top with remaining parmesan and fresh basil.

💡

Tips

Reserve that pasta water! The starch is what makes the sauce creamy without adding more cream.

Cook the pasta one minute less than the package says — it'll finish cooking in the sauce and absorb all that flavour.

plated & pretty

creamy and golden

one pot magic

fresh basil on top

the cheese pull

plated up

leftovers (there were none)

← Back to Tried & Tasted