Creamy Carrot Pasta Sauce

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This easy and comforting recipe is complete improvisation. I wanted to make a noodle dish with veggies, so I already peeled some carrots, when finding out I didn’t have noodles, in fact. Didn’t want to waste the carrots, so I made them into this creamy carrot sauce for pasta. What’s good about this recipe is how easy it is to make. Many of those ingredients are optional or changeable. So it can easily be your “make use of what’s in the fridge before it goes bad” go-to dish.

You are going to need some sort of a blender or a food processor. I used a small ninja-like blender so I had to wait for the roasted veggies to cool down a bit, but if you use a hand blender, it’s not necessary to wait and reduces the prepping time drastically. The skyr in this recipe adds extra protein and creaminess to the dish, without being too fatty or prominent in flavor, which I like. it’s optional though, you can use other products such as yogurt or Schmand, or totally omit it and get the creamy effect using more pasta water (could also be vegan that way!)

2-4 servings (depending on your pasta serving’s size)

Ingredients:

– 2 medium carrots
– 1 small-medium chili (I used Sivri pepper, some of them are hot. some are not) – if you don’t like spicy, replace it with a bell pepper
– ½ an onion
– 3-6 cloves of garlic
– 170 gr passata
– 10 gr tomato paste (2 tsp)
– 90 gr Skyr (2 tbsp) – can replace with Schmand or Yogurt, flavor and texture would be slightly different. can also omit
– salt and pepper
– garlic powder
– paprika
– Optional: Add to or replace the carrots with zucchini/peppers/pumpkin/sweet potato/cauliflower/eggplant

– pasta of your choice

For serving:
– Feta/Parmesan cheese
– Fresh basil for garnish

Slice the carrots into centimeter-wide crosswise slices. Cut pepper roughly, also crosswise. cut the onion into quarters. Cut the edge of the garlic cloves, place in an aluminum foil, drizzle olive oil and close the foil. place all the veggies on a baking tray lined with baking paper, drizzle olive oil, sea salt and pepper. Roast at 190℃ for 20-30 minutes, mix mid-roast, until they’re golden and soft enough to blend. Let it cool if using a non-heat-resistant blender as I did. Into the blender goes the veggies (without any peel), with the passata, tomato paste, skyr if using, and spices of your choice and blend until smooth.

Make the pasta: to a medium pot, add cold water and let it boil. When boiling, add a hefty amount of salt to the water, then add the pasta. Cook till Al dente and reserve a small cup of pasta water. Strain the pasta and add back to the pot with a few tablespoons of the sauce and some of the pasta water and mix on medium heat. optional: add half a slice of cheese to the mixture and mix until melted if you want it extra cheesy. Add more pasta water and/or sauce to your liking. I like it SAUCY.

Place your serving bowl over the pasta pot to let them heat up slightly before serving, then add the pasta to the bowl, break some feta on top (or grate parmesan/pecorino), drizzle some olive oil and black pepper, garnish with fresh basil leaves and serve.

I like the twist with the feta cause it gives it this mild acidity and freshness that parmesan or pecorino don’t give and it breaks the potential heaviness of the sauce.