Creamy Garlic Pasta Meal Prep In Less Than An Hour

creamy garlic sauces are fantastic .

They're really popular on the channel , and I know you guys love them , so we're gonna be doing this for the Meal prep series .

It's not actually using cream in this one , though .

We're gonna be using something else to get that creamy texture .

And this pasta tastes absolutely delicious .

It's highly nutritious , and it's easy to make .

Let's go straight into it .

All right , starting out , we're going to need four large tomatoes .

These ones are called gourmet tomatoes in Australia , but you can really use any type of your choice .

Slice these into thin , even sized strips , then with each individual strip to slice it into thirds or quarters , rotate 90 degrees and dice these into small pieces .

Just remember , though the larger they are , the longer they'll take to cook .

Next is two bell peppers or capsicums .

One's large ones .

Small .

What we're going to be doing with these is slicing them in half .

Pick out the stem , the seeds and the pith , and then you can bang it on the bench to remove anything that might be stuck in there .

Everyone does do this differently , though , so just do what you feel comfortable with now with each half , we're going to trim these up to make them easier to work with , going to rotate them 90 degrees and dice them into the same size pieces as the tomato .

And what I've shown here is one slicing through the skin and one slicing through the flesh .

They're both drastically different , and depending on how sharp your knife is , this can change .

So just do whatever's easiest because this is a garlic sauce , we're obviously going to need garlic .

This right here is five freshly peeled cloves .

Run these along a micro plain to create a paste .

This will extract the most flavour out of the garlic .

You can also roughly chop it , but we do want that strong flavour in this recipe .

Now this recipe is split into three parts .

The first part is the sauce , so place a large pan over a medium high heat .

Add in one tablespoon or 20 millilitres of olive oil , as well as the tomatoes and the bell peppers or capsicums sea salt flakes and cracked black pepper to taste .

Then what we're going to do is gently mix this around , cook it for about six minutes just to let this break down slightly .

Obviously , during that six minutes , this won't be completely soft , but we will be adding in more ingredients .

We can then add in the garlic for that beautiful infusion into the sauce , gently mix this up .

Make sure you concentrate on breaking it because it can clump and then cook this for another four minutes , gently mixing it around occasionally .

In the meantime , place a large pot of water over a high heat to bring it to a boil and generously season it with salt .

After four minutes on the sauce and 10 minutes in total so far , just give it another mix through .

The tomatoes will be broken down , but the capsicum or bell pepper will still have a little bit of firmness to it .

This is completely fine because we're going to be adding in one teaspoon or 2.5 grammes of onion powder , two teaspoons or five grammes of sweet paprika , half a teaspoon or one gramme of dried oregano and half a teaspoon or one gramme of dried basil .

Get in there again .

Give us a really good mix around for those flavours to become friends and cook this for three more minutes , just whilst occasionally mixing it .

And then what we're going to do is add in three quarters of a cup or 180 millilitres of chicken stock .

You can also use vegetable stock .

If you wanted to mix this around yet again , and then just bring this to a boil , and what we're going to do now is concentrate on cooking that capsicum or bell pepper .

Once it has come to a boil , we can then place on a lid , reduce the heat to low , and then just let this cook for about 10 minutes .

After 10 minutes , give it another mix around .

Everything should be nice and soft at this stage .

We're gonna then remove it from the stove top and allow it to cool down for about 15 to 20 minutes before adding it into a blender or food processor .

You can also use an immersion blender .

You'll get the best smoothness doing it that way , but if you are using a blender or food processor , just make sure you let it cool down , otherwise you'll run the risk of it exploding .

Whip that in .

Place this onto a high speed and blend it up until nice and smooth .

It won't be completely smooth because we haven't removed the skin from the vegetables .

You'll need to roast the capsicums or bell peppers , and also use a con cast on the tomatoes , which is boiling them in water to remove that skin anyway , once that's done , adding 240 grammes of soft , low fat cream cheese , you can use full fat if you wanted to for extra flavour , but again place us onto a high speed .

Blend it up until smooth , creamy , that beautiful colour as well of the rose .

But what we've made here , a cheat version of romesco sauce .

This can be popped aside for the time being .

OK , part one and two are out of the way , which is the sauce and the boiling water .

Part three is placing another pan over a high heat .

This time , add in two teaspoons or 10 millilitres of olive oil that is an extra virgin olive oil , by the way , as well as 750 grammes of 90% lean beef , mince or ground beef , sea salt flakes and cracked black pepper to taste .

Let this cook for about three minutes just to get that nice crust on it before we can .

Then break this up and cook for six minutes , mixing it around occasionally , just until all of that beef mince is nice and brown off .

Obviously , because we've used the lean cut , we won't have all of that fat in the pan .

But if you do , you will need to drain it , going back to the pasta water that's now at a boil .

Remove the lid , adding 500 grammes of any pasture of your choice .

In this case , I've gone with rigatoni .

Give it a mix to prevent it from clumping up and then just cook it for one minute less than the packet .

Instructions for the beef mix .

We're going to be adding in the same herbs and spices we did for the sauce , which is 2.5 grammes of onion powder , five gramme of sweet paprika , one gramme of dried oregano and one gramme of dried basil .

Give this a really good mix through .

Allow it to cook for four more minutes whilst mixing it occasionally .

Then we're going to add in that romesco sauce .

Make sure you scrape the bowl out to get everything in there , then mix this through yet again .

Cook this for two minutes , allowing it to come to a gentle simmer .

In the meantime , this will reduce , it will thicken up , and it goes absolutely perfect with this beef .

Also , during this stage , you can also check it for seasoning .

Add in sea salt flakes and cracked black pepper to taste .

Once your pasta is cooked one minute less than the packet instructions , remove it from the stovetop .

Allow it to drain .

Then we can add it straight into the sauce .

And we're going to mix this around straight away , getting that sauce coated all over that pasta .

The pasta will thicken up the sauce even more from the starch content .

But what we're going to do now is just allow this to cook for about 1 to 2 minutes , until everything is thick and coated .

This looks absolutely delicious , and it smells incredible , too .

After that's all done , we can then remove this from the stove top .

As for serving them up , portion them out into 5 , 750 millilitre containers .

There's a link in the description if you're interested and What I'm going to do is garnish them with some Parmesan cheese .

You can also add this into the sauce whilst it's cooking , or you can add it in when you're ready to serve .

It's completely up to you , but what we we've just created are these absolutely delicious and beautiful .

Creamy garlic pasta meal prep storing super simple .

Allow them to cool down for about 15 to 20 minutes before placing on the lids .

Put them in the fridge for up to four days and in the freezer for up to four months .

Preheating is easy as well , microwave or in a pan , and these are the macros for the complete dish , and each serving size is 530 grammes .

The only thing we have to do is of course , we can then dig in .

I've tried many ways to make this recipe , using different techniques and methods , using different ingredients at different stages .

But the flavour that we get in this one tastes absolutely perfect , and I wouldn't change a thing .

Obviously , you can add the Parmesan cheese in whilst the sauce is cooking if you wanted to , or you can add it at the end or whenever you're ready to reheat it and meal prep or not , just serve this in a regular bowl and have it as dinner .

It tastes absolutely incredible .

If you enjoyed this video , hit that like button .

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Thanks for watching .