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Creamy Garlic Butter Pasta

Creamy Garlic Butter Pasta | thekitchenpaper.com

I pretty much always want comfort food. As much as I love eating vegetables and healthy stuff, it’s much more common for me to really want something comforting — bean & cheese quesadilla, mashed potatoes, burgers, and pasta. Mashed potatoes and burgers usually require too much effort (especially when I’m like I NEED COMFORT FOOD STAT!). If, for some crazy reason, I am out of the necessary ingredients (tortillas, beans, cheese) to make a bean & cheese quesadilla: PASTA! Or, if I’ve already had a quesadilla that day: PASTA! Or, if I’m living in Asia and have yet to find good refried beans and cheddar: PASTA!

Creamy Garlic Butter Pasta | thekitchenpaper.com

Since we started our travels in Asia, eight months ago, I’ve had one constant when it comes to comfort food — garlic! Pretty much every mid-level restaurant in Vietnam, as well as the other countries we’ve visited, has garlic bread on the menu. It’s cheap, it’s hard to mess up, and it totally fulfills my “I miss home and need comfort!” craving. So, when I made this pasta, I wanted it to be garlicky!

Creamy Garlic Butter Pasta | thekitchenpaper.com

Like really, really, garlicky. This stuff is not messing around!

All in all, this sauce comes together really quickly. First, melt the butter and add the garlic. Let it cook for a minute or so, really getting that garlicky flavor into the butter. Then {this is the best part!} BLEND IT UP! I didn’t want any garlic chunks in my pasta — this is a smooth creamy sauce, remember? Blend up the butter and garlic, then return it to the pan to make a quick roux before adding the milk or cream to finish the sauce.

Once the sauce and pasta are both done, toss them together and enjoy a ridiculously garlicky, creamy, comforting meal. Did I mention you need to like garlic? You definitely need to like garlic. Since I’m on such a garlic train here, help me out: what are your favorite garlic dishes? Or comfort foods in general? I can’t really drown myself in creamy garlic butter pasta every day (or can I?) so… gimme ideas!!

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Creamy Garlic Butter Pasta | thekitchenpaper.com

Creamy Garlic Butter Pasta

★★★★ 4 from 3 reviews
  • Author: by Mary
  • Prep Time: 2 mins
  • Cook Time: 10 mins
  • Total Time: 12 minutes
  • Yield: 2
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Description

This creamy, garlicky pasta is ready in less than 15 minutes and SO easy to throw together! If you want quick comfort food, look no further!

Ingredients

  • 10 oz dry pasta
  • 3 Tbsp butter
  • 4 large garlic cloves, minced
  • 2 Tbsp flour
  • 2/3 cup whole milk
  • salt & pepper

Instructions

  1. Cook the pasta according to directions.
  2. While the pasta is cooking, make the sauce.
  3. Melt the butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Add the garlic and cook, stirring, for 1-2 minutes. It should be simmering.
  4. After 1-2 minutes, transfer the butter/garlic to a blender, and blend until smooth. Return to the saucepan over medium heat and add the flour.
  5. Whisk constantly, mixing the flour and butter together, for one minute. Slowly, whisking quickly, add the milk. Bring to a simmer and cook (stirring) until thickened.
  6. When the pasta is done, mix in the sauce. Add salt and pepper as needed.

Notes

My pasta looks especially yellow in these pictures because the butter over here is all dyed super yellow! Very annoying. Yours will probably *not* be this yellow, fyi!

Want some more pasta ideas? Here are a few of my favorites!

sup sup sup

 

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Comments

  3. Hi, I’m a college student and I don’t own a blender. Is it possible to skip the blending step and just add flour straight in?

    Reply

    • Hi Denise! You certainly could — I just did it for the texture… I didn’t want chunks of garlic in the sauce. But if you don’t mind chunks (or dice it SUPER small!), you could absolutely skip the blender.

      Enjoy! xo

      Reply

      • I just used garlic powder (1/8 teaspoon per each garlic clove) and it came out very smooth. If you don’t like garlic too much, I recommend not using all the garlic powder, though. It gets really strong. I hope this helps!

        Reply

    • Hi Paula — I have never frozen it, and don’t honestly have tons of experience with freezing sauces… but I don’t see why not! Enjoy! xo

      Reply

  6. I just made this and it is delicious! I used crushed garlic, so there was no need for the blender. I also added shrimp sautéed in butter, garlic, chopped cilantro, and a dash of cayenne powder. Very, yummy!

    Reply

  10. Love love love I added some onion powder and crushed red pepper for spice then I roped it off with shredded Parmesan cheese I definitely recommend it make sure you let it cook for a while though thx Miss. Mary also I didn’t use the blender but if do it again I think I will

    Reply

  14. Hi,

    I tried making this sauce & did everything as per your instructions (used a hand blender) but it turned out quite runny. Any suggestions as to where I’m going wrong?

    Reply

    • Hi Alicia! I wish I could see what exactly you did, but the only thing I can think is that maybe you didn’t cook the roux quite long enough! It needs time to cook in order to thicken! Sorry it didn’t work out for you… better luck next time!

      Reply

    • Hi Emily,

      Do you have any milk-alternative? Coconut milk? Almond milk? Powdered milk? You’re gonna need something along those lines…

      xo

      Reply

  16. I LOVE this recipe. I have made it twice now and it is amazing. The second time I added a bit of onion and feta cheese and it really took it up a notch. Thank you so much for sharing!

    ★★★★

    Reply

    • Great question, AnnMarie. I have no idea! I must have wanted to add a note and forgotten to do so — and now I have no idea what that note was! Maybe I wanted to note that you can use a milk alternative if you want… but I dunno! Thanks for pointing it out! (I’ve removed it now…)

      Reply

  18. How many cups of dry pasta did you use to make this recipe? I’ve searched everywhere to find the equivalent to 10 oz., but cannot find it.

    Reply

    • Hi Sarah — That number will vary wildly depending on what shape of pasta you’re using! What do you have? I’d say it’s maybe 2.5 cups of penne (dry), 1.75 of macaroni…

      Reply

  20. I just made this and I tried to double the recipe. I used 4 tbsp of flour and it came out really pasty. I added mushrooms and Oregano and chicken. It was good! I couldn’t blend the garlic because it was too small of an amount. I tried mashing the garlic too… it didn’t work. Even though I used 8 cloves, the garlic flavor was faint. So, next time I will cook the garlic longer. Lesson learned: add mushrooms and Oregano, less flour or more milk, and add chicken 🙂 of course whatever spin on it will be delicious, so do what suits you best!

    ★★★

    Reply

    • The first time I made this it was delicious! Second time, I doubled the recipe and it was too pasty as well. I think 3 tablespoons of flour would’ve probably been enough or 1 1/2 cups of milk…I’ll stick to a single batch for now! So good and simple!

      Reply

      • Totally agree — if you double the recipe, keep the roux situation the same (e.g. do not double flour/butter for the roux). It may be time for me to re-visit my amounts here — perhaps it could be halved for the original recipe!

        Reply

  21. Made this tonight and it was amazing! I don’t have a blender and it still turned out great! Super simple ingredients that I already had at home!

    Reply

  23. I am in love with this recipe..it’s quick and easy yet does not compromise with taste..lovely comfort food.. thanks for the recipe!!

    ★★★★★

    Reply

  24. OMG. Delicious!!! Im a beginner in the kitchen but i was able to follow your recipe easily. Thanka so much for the party in my mouth👍👏👏👏👏

    Reply

  26. This recipe was amazing and inexpensive! I did add light cream, sour cream, salmon, spinach, and tomatoes. 😋😋 Next time I will add parmesan cheese! 🤗

    By chance, are you on YouTube?

    Reply