Creamy Garlic Penne Pasta

One of my guilty pleasure comfort foods is this super creamy garlic penne pasta.
It is so rich and decadent I rarely make it – but when I do it's such a treat.
This recipe for the creamiest garlic penne pasta ever only requires 5
ingredients so it's the perfect meal when you just don't know what to have for
dinner!

Servings: 4 people

Author:

Prep Time
5 minutes

Cook Time
1 hour

Total Time
1 hour, 5 minutes

Course:

Cuisine:

Italian Italian-American

Keywords:

Pasta Vegetarian Cream Sauce Garlic roasted garlic penne

🧂 Ingredients

250 grams Dry Penne Pasta

I suggest buying a quality pasta preferably one that is made 'trafilata en bronzo'. This means the pasta was extruded from a bronze cast die and the surface is a bit rough. This helps sauces stick. Not to mention pastas like this are usually made with higher quality flour than your basic blue box stuff (you know what I'm talking about).
1.5 cups Heavy Cream

375ml. Can also use whipping cream instead as the fat difference is only a few percentage points.
2 bulbs Garlic

try to get nice evenly shaped ones as they cut and roast better than wonky or lopsided bulbs.
Olive Oil

as needed for roasting the garlic. You're probably looking at around a tbsp per bulb although most will run off into the foil
Hard Salty Cheese like Parmigiano Reggiano

Pecorino Romano, or Gran Padano. To taste.
Salt

For the pasta water. For the sauce it is optional. If you use enough cheese you don't need extra salt. If you are only using a little cheese then a pinch of salt here will not go amiss.
1 tsp White Pepper

optional. This will add a nice flavor to your sauce without creating black specks that freshly cracked black pepper will add. The flavor is different than black pepper but it goes great in this garlic cream sauce.

Instructions

1 Cut about a centimeter off the top of each bulb of garlic to expose most of the
cloves. Drizzle over some olive oil and wrap them in foil leaving a little
chimney hole for steam to escape. Place on an ovenproof tray or pan and bake at
175C or 350F for 45 minutes.
2 Once the garlic is done begin boiling your pasta water and penne according to
package instructions. Make sure the water is heavily salted.
3 Squeeze the garlic cloves from the 'paper' onto a cutting board. Mash them up
into a fine paste with a fork.
4 In a pan on medium heat add the cream and garlic paste and whisk together. As
the cream warms up you can add in some of the grated cheese. If you add too much
and it gets too thick add a few tablespoons of pasta water.
5 Add a few tablespoons of pasta water and then drain the penne. Taste the sauce
and add salt if needed and white pepper if you are using it. Add the pasta to
the cream sauce and give everything a good mix. Plate, serve, and enjoy!