Penne Rosa
I've been holding out on you guys. For a few weeks now, I've been stockpiling recipes so I could have some fun yumminess to share while I was chillaxing on the beach this week.
I felt particularly guilty about holding onto this one because it had all the elements of my favorite kind of recipe: supremely easy, speedy, delicious and healthy. But think of it is my gift in exchange for disappearing for a week. I go hang out on the beach for a week and you get a delicious recipe. Fair trade, right?
Okay, maybe not. But this is still a good one!
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The inspiration for this weeknight pasta dish actually comes from my eternal laziness. My office is directly above a Noodles and Company restaurant and more often than not, laziness wins out when I need lunch and I just make the quick trip down there to grab lunch.
A lot of times I get their Med Salad (so yum!) but sometimes I'll go for their Penne Rosa. You can serve this dish up vegetarian, but I often will add some plumped sautéed shrimp or cooked chicken breast to help up the protein factor.
My husband said this was his favorite pasta dish I've ever made (and I've made quite a few). I take that as high praise! Oh, and the best part? Start to finish: ready in 15 minutes. Yeah. You need to make this.
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📖 Recipe
Penne Rosa
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 4 cloves garlic minced
- 1 pinch crushed red pepper flakes
- 8 ounces button mushrooms sliced
- 2 medium tomatoes about ½ lb. chopped
- Salt and pepper to taste
- 4 cups fresh spinach
- ½ cup marinara sauce
- 12 ounces whole wheat penne cooked
- ¼ cup grated Parmesan cheese
- ⅓ cup plain Greek yogurt
Instructions
- In a large skillet with a lid, heat 1 tablespoon olive oil over medium-low heat. Add in 4 cloves garlic and 1 pinch crushed red pepper flakes, cook for 2 minutes or until garlic begins to soften.
- Add in 8 ounces button mushrooms, 2 medium tomatoes, Salt and pepper. Cook for 5 minutes, or until mushrooms begin to release their water.
- Add in 4 cups fresh spinach and cover skillet. Let spinach wilt for 2 minutes. Remove lid, and stir in ½ cup marinara sauce. Remove the skillet from the heat, and let rest for 5 minutes.
- Stir in ⅓ cup plain Greek yogurt, and then add 12 ounces whole wheat penne. Stir until sauce is mixed well and all pasta and veggies are coated. Heat until just warmed through. Divide into pasta bowls and serve topped with ¼ cup grated Parmesan cheese.
Video
This was delicious! My husband and I both enjoyed it and can't believe how few calories are packed into so much pasta. It's been added to our list! Thanks for sharing!
how well does this freeze, Cassie?
I'm not sure, Neema. Pasta can be a bit tricky because it tends to get mushy. If you try it out, let me know!
I made this tonight and it was awesome!
That looks amazing! Shame my wife can't eat tomato. 🙁
I made this tonight and it was delicious! I do not like shrimp, so I opted for rotisserie chicken breast from Costco instead. It was good, but I will definitely have to try the chicken sausage!
Scratch that! I see it now - Doing a grocery list in the car with the kids = crazytown
Hi! Just went to the store and am getting ready to whip this up. Now looking at the pic, I am missing spinach! I just copied the ingediants from the recipe. It looks like you forgot to have it in there - you might want to add it for folks in the future 🙂 Can't wait to try it!!!
I love this sauce so much that this recipe has become a staple in our house! I love that it has spinach and greek yogurt snuck in. I usually tweak the recipe a little bit as I don't like shrimp or mushrooms and add more red pepper flakes to get it a little spicier. I like what another commenter said about putting broccoli in the sauce instead of mushrooms, I'll have to try that next time. I've made this with gnocchi and it was good too. I also want to try the sauce over baked chicken. Yumm thank you for this brilliance!
I followed the recipe exactly, and it ended up tasting quite bland. It's missing something that Noodles puts in it, but I'm not quite sure what it is. I even added seasoning, but it still didn't taste the same.
I made this with curly kale instead of spinach and it was really good! Sometimes I think wilted spinach can get a little slimey and weird, but the kale had a really nice tender crunch to it and added a little more bulk to the dish. Also, I would recommend using a really good quality whole wheat pasta because some brands have a wonky texture.
I made this a few nights ago and it had a very unpleasent odor that stuck to me for about a week. My family told me that they could taste the yogurt and that it wasn't very good and that the pasta also needed more sauce. The recipe at Noodles &Co. in my opinion is much spicier and better than this recipe.
I just made this exactly the same way EXCEPT I used light sour cream because I forgot Greek yogurt and it was DELICIOUS! My husband even liked it! So good, so easy, so healthy. Thank you.
I'm wondering if this is something that can be prepped a night before and then re-heated? I'm part of a game night ladies group and I want to make this for them, however I need to do it the night before since I don't have the spare time between work and the evening festivities.
I think so! We eat it as leftovers pretty frequently. It does tend to get a touch dry, so you might want to try adding a bit more marinara sauce to the mix just so it stays saucy. Good luck, let me know how it turns out!
My family and I get this at Noodles & Company and absoluetly adore it. When I found this recipe my family was so excited and when I made it l, I had to make more because they ate so much!
This was delicious! Thanks for the recipe.
I made this tonight with a few substitutions and it was amazing! I used spaghetti squash instead of pasta and baby portabella instead of button mushrooms. I will absolutely make this again!
I made this last night using your recipe and it was delicious!! My husband doesn't even like tomatoes or spinach and he loved this dish. Thank you 🙂
I didn't follow the recipe. I'm not into Shrimp in pasta (personal choice) What caught my eye is adding Greek yogurt to sauce. I never heard of it. I knew about whipping cream, cheese and cream cheese but never yogurt. I added it to my homemade pasta sauce. Very good. I can't believe I can make a rich creamy red sauce that is healthy. Thank you this is a great healthy alternative and you are getting protein from the yogurt.
Oh my this recipe is INCREDIBLE! We made this tonight and both hubby and I LOVED it! This is most definitely getting added to our recipe rotation 🙂 Thanks for sharing!
I made this tonite it was extremely good. I added more spices and double the portions because I was cooking for a lot of people. But they all loved it. I would definitely make this again. I love Greek yogurt, but not the plain kind, so I was really surprised that the dish as a whole tasted so good. Will definitely make again with a few variations. I will probably add more veggies, since I left out the mushrooms. Just not a mushroom person. By the way I found this on Pinterest 🙂