Low Carb Penne Pasta in Pesto-Cream Sauce

"This recipe uses the recently introduced low-carb pasta for a flavor-packed, yet healthy side dish that satisfies your pasta craving without breaking your low-carb diet! Note: The 'Zaar nutrition chart doesn't recognize "low-carb" pasta, so be sure to add the number of carb grams shown on your pasta box. For example, my brand contains 5 G. net carbs, so my corrected total is 7.5 G. net carbs in each serving."
 
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photo by Lori Mama photo by Lori Mama
photo by Lori Mama
photo by Chef Jean photo by Chef Jean
photo by Chef Jean photo by Chef Jean
photo by CookinDiva photo by CookinDiva
Ready In:
15mins
Ingredients:
5
Serves:
8
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ingredients

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directions

  • Prepare pasta according to package directions; drain. HINT - save 1/4 cup pasta water to add to pasta later if it needs more liquid.
  • Stir all other ingredients into hot pasta, saving a little of the Parmesan to sprinkle on top. If the dish seems too dry, you can add a little of the reserved pasta water (the starch in that water helps to bind the sauce).
  • A nice variation is to toss in about 20 grape tomatoes (split in half first) as you toss all the ingredients. They add wonderful color and flavor.

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Reviews

  1. Loved it as a good jumping off point but made some changes.<br/><br/>I cooked one pound of large shrimp in light butter and garlic. Added the basil pesto, a can of Italian style diced tomatoes, 1/2 cup of Parmesan and 1/2 cup of Romano cheese, a few shakes of Italian seasoning, a few dashes of Frank's red hot and used FF Half n half instead of the heavy cream. I cooked all of this together and simmer until thicken and added to the cooked penne. My husband quite nearly licked the plate clean. Will definitely be making this again. Will try with chicken next time.
     
  2. This was tasty but a bit bland for my tastes. BF & son enjoyed though. Thanks for sharing!
     
  3. This was good. per my usual, instead of heavy cream I substituted fat-free half-and-half to save some calories and fat. I LOVED it. Thanks for sharing!
     
  4. Deliciously simple! The only thing I changed, was to add some shrimp. :)
     
  5. So good! I made mine lower fat too! I wasn't sure if it would work, but I used low fat milk instead of heavy cream. I'm sure it didn't turn out as rich and creamy, but the sauce still came together nicely. I really like that you just dump everything into the same pot and a few minutes later you have pasta with pesto sauce. Great recipe!
     
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Tweaks

  1. So good! I made mine lower fat too! I wasn't sure if it would work, but I used low fat milk instead of heavy cream. I'm sure it didn't turn out as rich and creamy, but the sauce still came together nicely. I really like that you just dump everything into the same pot and a few minutes later you have pasta with pesto sauce. Great recipe!
     

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