A quick and easy pasta sauce made with only 4 ingredients. No one will believe that this rich, creamy, and healthy pasta sauce is so easy to make. With a smokey, sun-dried tomato flavour, Creamy Sun-Dried Tomato Pesto Pasta is a family favourite recipe.

Let’s talk dinner! Days can be long and busy, but dinner brings everyone together. Around the table, you can hear about everyone’s day, connect with the people you love and of course enjoy some delicious food.
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Delicious dinners don’t need to be filled with lists of ingredients or take a long time to make. Tasty dinners can be filled with only a handful of ingredients and you can whip everything up in less than 5 minutes.
Creamy Sun-Dried Tomato Pesto Pasta has all of the flavours of a recipe that takes a long time to prepare. Seriously, you won’t believe how easy this recipe is to make. You can make the sauce ahead of time or just in time for dinner.

This past weekend, my family and I went up to the cottage to enjoy the winter months. I know, that it’s easy to complain about the cold. But, once a year I try to embrace it. For now, it’s not going anywhere, so we might as well enjoy!

Up at the cottage we play in the snow, build snowmen (or snow princesses), toboggan, and end the day cuddled up inside eating a wonderful meal. With all the fun, the last thing I want to do is spend too much time in the kitchen.
Creamy Sun-Dried Tomato Pesto Pasta is the perfect prep-ahead recipe. It takes just a few minutes to prepare and the food processor does most of the work. I usually prepare everything the day we leave or even the night before. So, when we are at the cottage, all I have to do is boil a pot of noodles and add the tasty sauce. Simple, right!?!

The Perfect Easy Dinner
With only four ingredients, Creamy Sun-Dried Tomato Pesto Pasta is one simple and delicious dinner. The combination of sun dried tomatoes, fresh basil, sautéed garlic and cottage cheese creates a truly luscious pasta sauce.
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Puréeing the sun-dried tomatoes with sautéed garlic creates an almost smokey flavour. The basil adds a light pepper taste, which perfectly compliments the rich and creamy taste of cottage cheese.
When the curds are pureed into Creamy Sun-Dried Tomato Pesto Pasta, it creates a thick, rich, and creamy sauce. Seriously, you’d think it was made with cream, not low fat (or fat free) cottage cheese.

Using jarred sun-dried tomatoes makes this recipe even easier. Not only is opening a jar of sun-dried tomatoes and throwing the whole thing into a food processor pretty much the easiest prep work ever, but since the tomatoes are already marinated in oil, there is no need to soften them.
The sun-dried tomato oil amplifies the richness of the sauce. You do not need to use all of the oil, simply adjust it to taste. Easy, right?!?!
How to Make Creamy Sun-Dried Tomato Pesto Pasta
Creamy Sun-Dried Tomato Pesto Pasta is so easy to prepare. Simply sauté the garlic with fresh basil. Cooking the garlic sweetens its flavours. While sautéeing fresh basil helps to wake up its natural flavours so they are at their peak of deliciousness before adding it to the sauce.
Next, carefully add the garlic and basil to a food processor with the sun-dried tomatoes and cottage cheese. When everything is puréed, you have a rich and creamy sauce, perfect for your favourite pasta noodles.
If the sauce is a little thick, add some pasta water to thin it out. Add one tablespoon at a time. This helps to control the thinning process. When it’s all done, you’ll have a creamy pasta sauce filled with a rich, smoky tomato flavour.
When preparing Creamy Sun-Dried Tomato Pesto Pasta ahead of time, don’t worry about the thickness of the sauce. You can reserve some pasta water while the noodles cook and thin the sauce before adding it to the noodles.

Looking for the perfect dish to serve with Creamy Sun-Dried Tomato Pesto Pasta
- Healthy Blackened Salmon
- Tomato Baked Chicken
- Avocado Caesar Salad
- Apple Beer Bread
- The Best Two Bite Brownies
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PrintCreamy Sun-Dried Tomato Pesto Pasta
Enjoy a rich and decadent creamy sauce without any cream or butter. Creamy Sun-Dried Tomato Pesto Pasta is a perfect quick and easy meal. With only four ingredients, this sauce is a wonderfully, simple dinner.
- Prep Time: 5 mins
- Cook Time: 15 mins
- Total Time: 20 mins
- Yield: 4 to 6 1x
Ingredients
- 1 (12 ounce) package pasta
- 1 cup fresh basil
- 3/4 cup sun-dried tomatoes, jar with oil
- 1/2 cup low fat cottage cheese
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
Instructions
- Cook pasta according to package directions. Reserve 1/2 cup of pasta water. Drain and set aside.
- In a large saucepan, over medium heat sauté garlic for 1 to 2 minutes, or until garlic is fragrant.
- Stir in basil, cook for 30 seconds to 1 minute.
- Remove from heat. Carefully add to the food processor.
- Add sun-dried tomatoes and cottage cheese to food processor. Puree until sauce is smooth. If needed, add reserved pasta water, one tablespoon at a time to thin sauce.
- Add pasta to sauce. Plate and enjoy!
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My favorite way to make pasta!! It’s so fresh and delicious!!
★★★★★
Yum! I love this sauce.
★★★★★
This looks delicious! My husband is a HUGE fan of sun dried tomatoes so I’ll have to make this for him! Happy Fiesta Friday!
All of us at home love pasta, and it is a regular feature at our dining table. I have never attempted pasta with sun-dried tomato pesto, though. This looks fab! I’m so going to make this! 🙂
I love the simplicity of this pesto. I have a package of sun dried tomatoes in my pantry right now. Can’t wait to try it on my gluten free pasta! What a great lunch this will be!
Jessica, I love the color of this pasta and I love anything with sun-dried tomatoes. I am sure I’ll finish one serving in no time. 😀 Thanks for sharing at Fiesta Friday party. Have a lovely weekend!
Wow, Jessica! This is so amazing considering that it only has 4 ingredients!! It just doesn’t get any better than this. Who wants to slave away after working all day long? Not me, that’s for sure! Your recipe is a real winner! Thanks so much for sharing this with us at Fiesta Friday this week! 🙂
This meal looks absolutely delicious!
Pasta ideas – great!
I’m fan of sun-dried tomatoes and I really like the addition of fresh basil in this recipe. Fresh basil is wonderful…just wish I could successfully grow it at home. Thanks for linking up this post with us at #OMGHWW!
This looks delicious! I love that it’s only 4 simple ingredients. Pinned.
These recipes sound delicious!!! Thank you!
Thanks Kelley!
This pasta dish looks so good! I’ve been wanting to try sun-dried tomato pesto, is it expensive?
Not at all!! And with a few simple ingredients you’ll have a really tasty pesto sauce. ?