Sun Dried Tomato Cream Sauce is a satisfying meal you can enjoy anytime of the year! Sundried tomatoes and cream cheese work together to make a lovely Chicken with Creamy Sun Dried Tomato Sauce recipe! Today’s recipe is the perfect solution to any weekday meal! Sundried tomatoes are part of the tomato family and they aren’t really tomatoes. What’s not to love?
Creamy, hearty, tangy, and chewy. Plus, sun dried tomatoes are loaded with Vitamin A (important for your skin!), and have three times the amount of lycopene as tomatoes that have been cooked. They’re also an anti-inflammatory. Why is this important? Inflammation is associated with a number of diseases and health conditions like cancer, heart disease, and diabetes. Sun dried
tomatoes are rich in fiber too! Tomatoes are a great source of lycopene, which is a pigment that gives fruits and vegetables their red color. Tomatoes that are deep red and orange contain the most lycopene. Lycopene has been shown to help reduce the risk of heart disease, prostate cancer and various other cancers.
Sun Dried Tomato Cream Sauce
Looking for a creamy Sun Dried Tomato Cream Sauce that doesn’t take forever to cook? This sun-dried tomato sauce utilizes a secret ingredient, as well as a few fresh ingredients, to create a delicious and creamy sauce. Sun dried tomato cream sauce is going to turn your pasta into a culinary wonderland. It’s so simple, but yet so delicious. You taste the tangy tomatoes followed by the smooth cream. Add some parmesan and hello bliss!
A super easy pasta dish with the most amazing, creamiest sun-dried tomato sauce ever, made in less than 30 min!
Remember that sun-dried tomato cream sauce I made not too long ago? The one I wanted to guzzle down? Well, I just had to make it again, except this time I turned into an epic pasta dish.
Best of all, this is the easiest pasta dish ever, and you can add in your favorite meats and/or veggies – the possibilities are endless. Although I highly recommend the smoked andouille chicken sausage (found at Trader Joe’s) – it pairs beautifully with the sun dried tomatoes and heavenly cream sauce!
PASTA WITH SUN-DRIED TOMATO CREAM SAUCE
- yield: 4 SERVINGS
- prep time: 10 MINUTES
- cook time: 20 MINUTES
- total time: 30 MINUTES
A super easy pasta dish with the most amazing, creamiest sun-dried tomato sauce ever, made in less than 30 min!
INGREDIENTS:
- 8 ounces penne
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 2 smoked andouille sausage links, thinly sliced
- 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley leaves
FOR THE CREAM SAUCE
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 1 cup chicken broth
- 1/2 cup heavy cream
- 1/3 cup julienned sun dried tomatoes in olive oil, drained
- 1/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan
- 1/4 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1/4 teaspoon dried basil
- 1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes, or more, to taste
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
DIRECTIONS:
- In a large pot of boiling salted water, cook pasta according to package instructions; drain well.
- Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium high heat. Add sausage, and cook, stirring frequently, until sausage is lightly browned, about 3-4 minutes; set aside.
- To make the cream sauce, melt butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Add garlic and cook, stirring frequently, until fragrant, about 1-2 minutes. Whisk in flour until lightly browned, about 1 minute. Gradually whisk in chicken broth and cook, whisking constantly, until incorporated, about 1-2 minutes.
- Stir in heavy cream, sun dried tomatoes, Parmesan, oregano, basil and red pepper flakes until slightly thickened, about 1 minute. Season with salt and pepper, to taste.
- Stir in pasta and sausage until well combined, about 1-2 minutes.
- Serve immediately, garnished with parsley, if desired.
Sun-Dried Tomato Cream Sauce
Sun dried tomato cream sauce is going to turn your pasta into a culinary wonderland. It’s so simple, but yet so delicious. You taste the tangy tomatoes followed by the smooth cream. Add some parmesan and hello bliss! Tomatoes are a great source of lycopene, which is a pigment that gives fruits and vegetables their red color. Tomatoes that are deep red and orange contain the most lycopene. Lycopene has been shown to help reduce the risk of heart disease, prostate cancer and various other cancers.
Linguine with Spinach and Sun-Dried Tomato Cream Sauce takes just 30 minutes to make! This simple Italian pasta is a great choice for a weeknight dinner! Linguine is generously coated in a comforting creamy sauce made with garlic and Parmesan cheese.
This delicious linguine has been inspired by the sun-dried tomato pasta I made a while back. This recipe features the best homemade pasta sauce you’ll ever try! It’s full of flavor and color! The creamy linguine Alfredo sauce is made with garlic, paprika, cream, and shredded Parmesan cheese.
This linguine recipe makes a great meatless dinner. If you crave some protein, you can easily add grilled chicken or cooked shrimp to the dish. Just like in this simple chicken pasta or this shrimp pasta.
Linguine with creamy alfredo sauce
- Creamy comfort food. In this recipe, linguine is smothered in a simple homemade alfredo sauce made with cream, garlic, and Parmesan cheese. The silky sauce coats the linguine to produce one of the most comforting and decadent pasta dishes you’ll ever try! Sun-dried tomatoes and spinach add so much flavor to the creamy deliciousness!
- 30-minute recipe. This beautiful pasta dish takes only 30 minutes to make.
- Only 9 ingredients. Simple recipes are the best! This recipe uses basic ingredients that you can easily buy in any grocery store.
- Beautiful presentation. This easy pasta makes a beautiful and colorful presentation. Creamy alfredo sauce has a light pink color thanks to sun-dried tomatoes and paprika. Spinach also adds vibrancy to the linguine!
What is linguine?
- Linguine is a long, thin, ribbon-style pasta of Italian origin. It’s similar to fettuccine and spaghetti. Linguine is like flattened spaghetti and not as wide as fettuccine.
- Linguine originated in Genoa of Liguria region, Italy.
- Linguine is usually served with seafood or with pesto sauce. Other common dishes made with linguine include puttanesca sauce, linguine carbonara, and linguine with clams.
- Linguine is made with durum wheat semolina.
Fun fact: Did you know that “linguine” in Italian means “little tongues”? “Linguina” means “little tongue” in Italian, and “linguine” is plural of “linguina”. The root of the word is “lingua” (Latin) which means tongue.
Substitutions
This pasta dish is very flexible, and you can use all kinds of different ingredients:
- Don’t have linguine? Use spaghetti or fettuccine pasta.
- What can you use to replace Parmesan? Use Mozzarella cheese, Pecorino Romano, or Asiago cheese.
- Don’t have spinach? Use Swiss chard, arugula, or kale.
Linguine vs. fettuccine
- Both linguine and fettuccine are ribbon style, long strand pasta. Fettuccine is a flat thick pasta. Fettuccine is noticeably wider than linguine. Linguine is more like flattened spaghetti.
- The most common dish made with fettuccine is fettuccine alfredo. Linguine is usually served with seafood, pesto, carbonara sauce, or with clams.
Linguine vs. spaghetti
- Both linguine and spaghetti are ribbon-style long-strand pasta. They are very similar in shape. Linguine is like a flatter version of spaghetti.
- Spaghetti is usually served with tomato sauce or meat. Linguine is traditionally served with seafood or pesto.
Sauces that go well with linguine
- White cream pasta sauce. Linguine tastes amazing when coated in the white cheese Italian pasta sauce. Make simple white cream pasta sauce for linguine or any other pasta!
- Sun-dried tomato cream sauce. Sun-dried tomatoes and basil in a homemade creamy Mozzarella sauce will make a perfect sauce for linguine. This sun-dried tomato pasta recipe shows you how to make it.
- Alfredo sauce. Make linguine alfredo by following this recipe for chicken broccoli alfredo. You can even add chicken and broccoli, or keep them out of the recipe and just follow the steps for the alfredo sauce.
Gluten-free friendly recipe
- You can easily make this recipe gluten free by using gluten free linguine.
What to serve with linguine
- Bread. Serve Baguette or Italian garlic bread.
- Fresh salad. Make this tomato cucumber avocado salad or tomato mozzarella salad.
- Spinach salad. Because this linguine has spinach, it would be a great combination to serve it with a basic spinach salad. Just toss together some spinach leaves with shredded Parmesan cheese, salt, pepper, and olive oil. Or, if you want something more sophisticated, try this spinach salad with prosciutto and pears. Or, make a spinach salad with beets.
Cooking Tips
- Reserve some pasta water. Use it to thin out the cream sauce if it gets too thick.
- Make sure to season the creamy linguine sauce with just the right amount of salt. That means you might have to add more salt than indicated in the recipe. Salt really helps to bring out all the flavors!
Chicken with Creamy Sun Dried Tomato Sauce
Chicken with Creamy Sun Dried Tomato Sauce is a quick and easy weeknight meal idea that can be made in 30 minutes. It’s a great recipe that the whole family will love! I hope you’re in the mood for chicken today! I really hope that’s true. It’s white meat, but you can also use dark meat. It’s so versatile. Anyway, what I’m trying to say is that there are a lot of ways to cook chicken and everyone has their favorite way to prepare it.
Creamy Sun Dried Tomato Chicken is easy enough for weeknights but worthy of guests. The combination of flavors – the sun dried tomatoes, garlic, shallot, cream, parmesan and basil is simply divine.
Sun Dried Tomato Chicken in Skillet
You can never have too many easy chicken recipes for a quick weeknight meal! The great thing about this Skillet Chicken with Creamy Sun Dried Tomato Sauce is that it’s simple enough for a weeknight meal yet it’s fancy enough to serve to guests on a weekend.
It’s packed with bright and delicious Italian flavors that will leaving everyone craving it and requesting it be made again and again!
One-Pan Meals are the Best!
I love that this sun dried tomato chicken recipe is cooked in a skillet on the stove top so you don’t need to wait for an oven or grill to preheat, and of course being the dishes hater that I am, I love the fact that the chicken and sun dried tomato sauce are made in one pan.
This is perfect for serving with pasta as it makes plenty of extra sauce to serve over the top – with extra parmesan of course! And I’d recommend serving it with a side of steamed or roasted asparagus.
Who says weeknight meals need to be boring? This is anything but! The sun dried tomatoes, garlic/shallot, cream, parmesan and basil is simply divine.
This creamy sun dried tomato chicken is a restaurant quality-dish but no one needs to know how easy it is to make!
Skillet Chicken with Creamy Sun Dried Tomato Sauce
Such an easy delicious chicken recipe! Chicken breasts are pan seared then covered in a rich, creamy, incredibly flavorful sun dried tomato sauce and then finished with fresh basil.
- Servings: 4
- Prep 10 minutes
- Cook 15 minutes
- Ready in: 25 minutes
Ingredients
- 4 (6 oz) boneless skinless chicken breasts*
- 2 1/2 Tbsp olive oil
- Salt and freshly ground black pepper
- 3 Tbsp finely chopped shallot or yellow onion
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 1/3 cups + 1 Tbsp low-sodium chicken broth
- 2 1/2 tsp cornstarch
- 1/2 cup sun dried tomato halves packed in olive oil, drained and finely chopped**
- 1/4 cup heavy cream
- 1/3 cup finely shredded parmesan cheese
- 3 Tbsp chopped fresh basil
Instructions
- Pound chicken to an even thickness using the flat side of a meat mallet. Season both sides of chicken with salt and pepper.
- Heat 1 1/2 Tbsp olive oil in a 12-inch skillet over medium-high heat.
- Add chicken (cover with a splatter screen if you have one) and cook about 4 – 5 minutes per side until center registers 165 degrees on an instant read thermometer.
- Transfer to a sheet of foil and wrap to keep warm, set aside.
- Heat remaining 1 Tbsp olive oil in skillet. Add shallot and saute until nearly soft, about 3 minutes, add garlic and saute 1 minute longer.
- Pour in 1 1/3 cups chicken broth, while scraping bottom to release browned bits.
- In a small bowl whisk together remaining 1 Tbsp broth with cornstarch then pour into skillet. Stir in sun dried tomatoes, season sauce with salt and pepper to taste.
- Bring to a light boil and allow to simmer 1 minute, stirring constantly. Add in cream and parmesan, stirring until parmesan has melted.
- Remove from heat, add chicken to skillet, spoon sauce over chicken. Top with basil and serve immediately.
Notes
- *If you can’t find smaller chicken breasts you can cut two larger ones in half through the thickness to create four smaller ones (and you shouldn’t need to pound it even).
- **Sun dried tomatoes can be minced by hand or in a food processor.
Health Benefits Of Tomatoes
There are a number of benefits of tomatoes that other fruits and vegetables don’t provide, including fiber, vitamins A, C, and K, manganese and folate. Most of us cannot imagine our lives without a glass of tomato juice or some tomato ketchup every once in a while. But depending on the people’s health status, tomatoes are not always healthy — you need to know what benefits of tomatoes you can use and how to cook them correctly. I’ll share with you some useful tips regarding these red berries.
Tomatoes are loaded with many, many health benefits. In fact, they are incredibly versatile and can be prepared in a seemingly endless number of dishes, as well as being great to eat alone. Keep reading to find out why you need to stop neglecting tomatoes as a part of your regular balanced diet.
10 Health Benefits from Eating Tomatoes
1. Tomatoes are good for your skin.
Tomatoes contain a high level of lycopene, which is a substance that is used in some of the more pricy facial cleansers that are available for purchase over-the-counter.
If you want to try tomatoes for skin care, you need to start with about eight to twelve tomatoes. Peel the tomatoes and then place the skin on your face with inside of the tomato touching your skin.
Leave the tomatoes on your face for a minimum of ten minutes, then wash. Your face will feel clean and shiny. Some redness may occur, but should fade with time.
2. Tomatoes help prevent several types of cancer.
A number of studies have been conducted that indicate that the high levels of lycopene in tomatoes works to reduce your chances of developing prostate, colorectal and stomach cancer.
Lycopene is a natural antioxidant that works effectively to slow the growth of cancerous cells. Cooked tomatoes produce even more lycopene, so go ahead and cook up a batch of your mom’s famous tomato soup.
3. Tomatoes help maintain strong bones.
Tomatoes contain a considerable amount of calcium and Vitamin K. Both of these nutrients are essential in strengthening and performing minor repairs on the bones as well as the bone tissue.
4. Tomatoes help repair damage caused by smoking.
No, eating tomatoes is not the most recent fad to help you quit smoking. However, tomatoes can reduce the amount of damaged done to your body by smoking cigarettes.
Tomatoes contain coumaric acid and chlorogenic acid that work to protect the body from carcinogens that are produced from cigarette smoke.
5. Tomatoes provide essential antioxidants.
Tomatoes contain a great deal of Vitamin A and Vitamin C. This is primarily because these vitamins and beta-carotene work as antioxidants to neutralize harmful free radicals in the blood.
Free radicals in the blood stream are dangerous because it may lead to cell damage. Remember, the redder the tomato you eat is, the more beta-carotene it contains. In addition, you also want to keep in mind that cooking destroys the Vitamin C, so for these benefits, the tomatoes need to be eaten raw.
6. Tomatoes are good for your heart.
Because of the Vitamin B and potassium in tomatoes, they are effective in reducing cholesterol levels and lowering blood pressure. Therefore, by including tomatoes in your regular balanced diet you can effectively prevent heart attacks, strokes as well as many other heart related problems that may threaten your life.
7. Tomatoes are good for your hair.
The Vitamin A in tomatoes works perfectly to keep your hair shiny and strong. In addition, it also does wonders for your eyes, skin, bones and teeth.
8. Tomatoes are good for your kidneys.
Adding tomatoes without seeds to your diet has been proven in some studies to reduce the risk of kidney stones.
9. Tomatoes are good for your eyes.
The Vitamin A found in tomatoes is fantastic for improving your vision. In addition, eating tomatoes is one of the best foods to eat to prevent the development of night blindness.
Tomatoes are packed full of the valuable mineral known as chromium. It works effectively to help diabetics keep their blood sugar levels under better control.
10. Tomatoes Help Prevent Cancer
According to the American Institute for Cancer Research, lycopene in tomatoes could be responsible for the fruit’s anticancer properties . Lycopene is an antioxidant in the carotenoid family. Its potent antioxidant properties have been found to neutralize free radicals that are generated in our bodies due to various reasons. Even laboratory studies show that tomato components have prevented the proliferation of several cancer cell types.
More importantly, one can enhance the cancer-fighting potential of tomatoes by taking them in a processed form – like the sauce, juice, or paste of tomatoes. Doing so allows the natural compounds in tomatoes to be more easily absorbed by the body. Also, processed forms of tomatoes have higher concentrations of lycopene
However, it is important to consume a variety of foods (and not just tomatoes) to combat cancer, or any disease for that matter.
A study has also revealed the efficacy of tomatoes in preventing prostate cancer . But then, we don’t know if lycopene supplements have the same effect . And not just tomatoes in the processed form, but even those that are cooked can have better health effects.
Given their high antioxidant levels, tomatoes are a great choice for combating breast cancer. Adults with cancer participating in studies showed signs of cancer regression post lycopene supplementation. Higher lycopene intake has also been linked to a lower risk of lung, colon, oral, and cervical cancers.
Cancer cells can remain dormant for years until some chemical reaction triggers them and they attach themselves to the body’s blood supply. Lycopene was found to disrupt this linking process, thereby preventing the cancer cells from growing further
Another reason tomatoes help fight cancer is adiponectin, a potent compound in the fruit.
11. Tomatoes Regulate Blood Pressure
The lycopene in tomatoes has also shown to reduce blood pressure
Tomatoes are also rich in potassium, a mineral known to lower blood pressure levels . This is because potassium reduces the effects of sodium. In fact, the more potassium you consume, the more sodium you lose through urine. Apart from this, potassium eases the tension in the walls of your blood vessels – further reducing blood pressure. According to the American Heart Association, the recommended intake of potassium for an average adult is 4,700 mg per day. But be careful not to consume too much of potassium as it might lead to kidney stones.