High Protein Rose Pasta Sauce with Cottage Cheese
Love a creamy, rose pasta sauce but want something healthier and more filling? This super easy high protein pasta sauce recipe blends cottage cheese with a sautéed shallot, garlic, and tomato paste mixture. The result is velvety, so tasty it’s drinkable, and ready in 10 minutes!
What’s on repeat in my kitchen weekly? This rose pasta. Inspired by my popular cottage cheese “Alfredo” sauce, this recipe super easy and super healthy. My toddler and husband DEVOUR it – and that makes me one happy dietitian and mama.
Plus, with 12 grams of protein per serving in the sauce (and 25 grams of protein per serving if you dish it with protein pasta), I can feel good about serving this with a side of 15-minute garlic green beans and calling it a day.
How This Cottage Cheese Rose Sauce is Made:
Some Hot Tips for You:
- Reserve a little extra pasta water (like 1/4 cup) just in case! In my many rounds of recipe testing, I found some times I wanted to add just a touch more when stirring the sauce into the cooked pasta.
- Blending the cottage cheese with the cooked shallot-garlic-tomato paste mix resulted in a smoother texture than just pouring blended cottage cheese into the hot pan with the tomato mixture. This is why I recommend doing it this way.
For ultimate satisfaction: Serve the pasta with parmesan cheese and an extra drizzle of olive oil. So good!
High Protein Rose Pasta Sauce with Cottage Cheese
Ingredients
For the Cottage Cheese Rose Sauce:
- 2 tbsp olive oil, or butter
- 1 large shallot, finely chopped
- 4 large cloves garlic, minced
- 3 tbsp tomato paste
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp black pepper
- 1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
- 1 1/2 cups cottage cheese, I use 2%
- 1/2-3/4 cup reserved pasta water
For Serving:
- 340 gram box pasta, cooked according to package directions
- parmesan cheese
- basil leaves, optional
- olive oil, drizzle, optional
Equipment
Instructions
- Warm olive oil over medium heat in a pan. Add the shallot and garlic, and season with salt, pepper, and crushed red pepper flakes. Saute for 2-3 minutes until translucent.
- Stir in the tomato paste, then remove from heat.
- Add the cottage cheese to a high-speed blender with the warm shallot-garlic-tomato paste mixture. Blend until smooth and creamy.
- Add ½ cup of reserved pasta water to the blender and blend again until smooth.
- Return the sauce to the pan over low heat (just to warm it up) and add the cooked pasta. Stir everything together until pasta noodles are coated with sauce. If needed, you can add another ¼ cup pasta water.
- Taste, and add more salt or pepper as needed before serving with freshly grated parmesan cheese and fresh basil (optional).
Hannah, Does this keep well in the refrigerator?
Hi Susan, I would say that the sauce keeps best in the fridge stored on its own (rather than tossed with the pasta). So if your plan is to prep it ahead of time, I’d store it separately, then reheat before serving with pasta. Hope that helps!