Penne with Goat Cheese and Rosemary

Even how much I try to keep myself away from the fast, bad carbs, this is where I always return to: pasta. Italian cuisine is my absolute favorite of the European kitchens and I totally, totally love pasta. I still have my pasta machine untouched on top of my kitchen cupboard, but I’m also intending to start practicing pasta-making…as soon as I get a little time to get my hands into it.

Usually I like my pasta most with something fresh, like tomato, spinach or asparagus. When I, however, spotted this incredibly cheesy and rich (in calories too) pasta recipe I just had to try it. In case I didn’t tell it yet, I am also a BIG fan of cheese. All kinds of cheeses, but flavorous and creamy goat cheese is one of my favorites. I took free hands with the cheese, and added more than the original recipe asked for (I also made a bigger portion of the pasta). And thought it was the best idea ever.

It was the first time I ran into this self-made onion-garlic puree. I thought it was genius and will definitely use it another time too. Another great thing in this recipe was that it did not use any butter or heavy cream. It’s so easy to cheat myself thinking it would be somehow lighter with all that cheese, and the Turkish 10 % fat yogurt I used… But when you taste it, you will forget about the cheese and the fat and everything that does not really matter. I could not find rigatoni pasta from the market, so I substituted it with penne. If you can get rigatoni, use it. It fills wonderfully with the goat cheese sauce and makes every bite totally irresistible. I also substituted goat milk gouda with regular gouda, but would encourage you to use the first one if you can have that at hand.

Irresistible Goat Cheese and Rosemary Pasta (serves 4-6)

500g penne (or rigatoni) pasta

250ml onion-garlic puree (see the recipe below)

1 teaspoon mustard (I used my favorite, honey flavored Dijon and it suited perfectly)

200g soft goat cheese

100g goat milk gouda

250ml Turkish or Greek yogurt

handful of grated parmesan cheese

2 springs fresh rosemary

salt & pepper

Onion and Garlic Puree

1 big yellow onion

9 cloves garlic

250ml water

salt & pepper

Preheat the oven to 200 C. Place the rosemary springs on the baking sheet with baking paper, drizzle with olive oil and roast in the oven for 10-15 minutes until crispy. Set aside.

Bring water to a boil in a large pot, add 1 tablespoon of salt and cook pasta according to the package directions.

Prepare the onion-garlic puree. Peel and roughly chop the onion and garlic cloves and place them in a micro-oven safe bowl with the water. Cover and microwave on high for 10 minutes until soft. Puree in a blender or such alike until smooth, and spice with salt & pepper to your taste.

In a big saucepan (I actually used a wok pan) bring the onion-garlic puree to a simmer. Add mustard and mix well. Add all the cheeses and mix well until fully melted and smooth. Lower the heat and whisk in the yogurt until combined. Season with salt and black pepper.

Drain the pasta and add it on the pan with the sauce. Stir to fully cover all the pasta with the sauce. 

Serve with roasted rosemary and a pinch of grated parmesan. (You might also want to add something fresh in your portion, my hubby preferred it with parsley.)