This Marry Me Pasta is a hearty, delicious dish perfect on its own or with your favorite added protein. Gluten-free noodles, mushrooms, and spinach are combined with a rich sun-dried tomato cream sauce seasoned to perfection. It's quick, easy, and so good!
If you ask me, there's nothing better than a creamy pasta dish. Recipes like steak pasta alfredo and butter chicken pasta are always in my recipe rotation because they're rich, hearty, and so delicious.
Marry me pasta is one of my favorite variations because it works so well on its own or with added proteins. I make all kinds of variations, from plain to chicken and shrimp. It's an easy recipe to make, and it's so easy to play around with.
This version takes the classic creamy chicken pasta dish and replaces the meat with more veggies to give it a wonderful flavor and texture.
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Why You'll Love Marry Me Pasta
- Simple Ingredients: This recipe uses basic ingredients found in your pantry and local grocery store.
- Easy: With only a few simple steps and about 20 minutes from start to finish, this is a super-easy recipe.
- Rich and Creamy: The tomato cream sauce is so rich and creamy it just clings to the noodles.
- Full of Flavor: With all its mushrooms, spinach, and seasonings, every bite explodes with flavor.
- Versatile: You can easily adjust the seasonings to suit your taste or add your favorite protein like chicken, pork, beef, or even seafood.
Ingredients
Mushrooms
- Baby Bella Mushrooms: Sliced Baby Bella mushrooms have a rich flavor and hearty texture, making them the perfect alternative to meat.
- Sun-Dried Tomato Oil: Sun-dried tomato oil from the jar helps impart flavor to the mushrooms while they cook.
- Seasonings: A blend of Italian seasoning, paprika, and black pepper gives the mushrooms a big kick of flavor.
Sauce
- Basil Olive Oil: Basil olive oil imparts more flavor while cooking the vegetables for the sauce. I prefer Costabile basil olive oil for its flavor, quality, and purity. Use Code: 15GoldenGK for 15% off.
- Spinach: Spinach adds color, flavor, and texture to the pasta.
- Aromatics: Shallots, minced onion, and garlic add an earthy, slightly sweet, aromatic flavor to the dish.
- Seasonings: A blend of Italian seasoning and paprika adds robust flavor to every bite.
- Sun-Dried Tomatoes: Sun-dried tomatoes add concentrated, sweet tomato flavor.
- Tomato Paste: Tomato paste adds more tomato flavor and helps keep the sauce on the thicker side.
- Vegetable Broth: Vegetable broth helps thin the sauce to the perfect consistency and adds flavor at the same time.
- Heavy Cream: Heavy cream makes the sauce rich and creamy.
- Parmesan: Shredded parmesan adds more flavor and richness.
See the recipe card at the end of the post for a full list of ingredients and their exact amounts.
Flavor Variations
- Spicy: Add cayenne or red pepper flakes for a kick of heat.
- Pasta: You can use any short, textured noodles for this recipe.
- Vegetables: Add any of your favorite veggies to this pasta for more flavor and texture.
- Add Meat: Add chicken, beef, pork, or seafood to the pasta, if you like.
How to Make This Marry Me Pasta Recipe
Mushrooms
1: In a large skillet, saute the mushrooms and seasonings over medium heat until soft.
2: Boil the pasta according to the package directions for al dente while cooking the mushrooms. Then, drain the noodles and set them aside.
Sauce
1: Push the mushrooms to the outside of the skillet, reduce the heat to medium-low, and add the basil oil and butter. Cook the minced garlic, shallots, sun-dried tomatoes, tomato paste, and pasta seasonings until fragrant.
2: Add the flour and stir well. Then, add the vegetable broth, heavy cream, and spinach, and cook until the sauce begins to thicken and the spinach begins to wilt.
3: Add the parmesan cheese and stir until creamy. Then, gently mix in the pasta. Serve garnished with fresh basil.
Hint
Be sure your heat is at medium-low when you cook the garlic. You don't want to burn it and make it bitter.
Storage
Refrigerate this pasta for up to 4 days in an air-tight container. Don't freeze it. The heavy cream in the sauce will break and make the entire thing grainy and inedible.
What to Serve with This Delish Marry Me Pasta
Serve this delicious, creamy pasta with a nice salad or some garlic bread. You could also add grilled chicken, pork chops, shrimp, or your favorite seafood to the pasta.
Expert Tips
- Baby Bella mushrooms are the best mushrooms for this recipe. They're large enough to easily slice, small enough to easily eat, and their texture is nice and meaty.
- Remember to reduce the heat to medium-low after pushing the mushrooms to the side. Cooking garlic on heat that's too high can burn it and make it bitter.
- Cook the noodles just to al dente. You don't want them to fall apart when you mix them into the sauce.
More Delicious Marry Me Pasta Recipes
Marry Me Pasta Questions
Marry me pasta is a pasta dish made with a seasoned, creamy tomato sauce to which vegetables and meat are often added. Its name refers to the idea that it's so delicious it could inspire a marriage proposal.
Gluten-free pasta has a slightly different but pleasant flavor because of the ingredients typically used to make it. It may have an earthy, nutty flavor or a mild, slightly sweet flavor.
You can! Just use plant butter and cream. It will still be rich, thick, and delicious.
★ Did you make this recipe? Don't forget to give it a star rating below! I would love to hear back from you! You can also FOLLOW ME on Instagram, Pinterest, Facebook, and TikTok for more delicious recipes.
📖 Recipe
Marry Me Pasta
Video
Ingredients
Mushrooms
- 1 ½ tablespoon sun-dried tomato oil
- 8 oz Baby Bella mushrooms sliced
- 1 teaspoon paprika
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 ½ teaspoon Italian seasoning
- ¼ teaspoon black pepper
Sauce
- 12 oz gluten free penne
- 1 tablespoon basil olive oil
- ½ teaspoon dry basil
- ⅓ teaspoon smoked paprika
- 1 tbsp Italian seasoning
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 2 tbsp shallots
- 1 tbsp minced onion
- 2 ½ tablespoon tomato paste
- ½ cup sun-dried tomatoes diced
- 2 cups spinach diced
- 2 tablespoon butter
- 2 tablespoon minced garlic
- 1 ½ cups vegetable broth
- 1 cup heavy cream
- 1 cup parmesan shredded
- 2 tablespoon gluten-free flour
- Chopped basil for garnish
Instructions
Mushrooms
- In a large skillet, cook the mushrooms, paprika, salt, Italian seasoning, and black pepper in sun-dried tomato oil over medium heat for 4 to 5 minutes until softened.
- While the mushrooms cook, boil the noodles according to the directions for al dente. Drain and set aside.
Sauce
- Push the mushrooms to the outside edge of the pan, reduce the heat to medium-low, and add the basil oil and butter.
- Add the minced garlic, minced onion, shallots, sun-dried tomatoes, tomato paste, Italian seasoning, paprika, salt, and dry basil. Stir well and cook for 2 minutes until fragrant.
- Add the flour and stir until combined.
- Add the vegetable broth, heavy cream, and spinach. Stir and cook for 5 minutes until the sauce begins to thicken and the spinach wilts.
- Add the parmesan cheese and stir until creamy. Fold in the pasta. Serve garnished with fresh basil.
Notes
- This recipe serves 6.
- Store this pasta in an airtight container for up to 4 days.
- Freezing is not recommended due to the cream in the recipe.
- Add chicken, steak, or your favorite seafood to this recipe. Simply sear them first in a pan and add them to the dish at the end.
Alan says
Just cooked this and was left with the minced onion at the end, re read and still cannot see where you add it. Dish was nice without thou
Nicole Kendrick says
I am so sorry, they go with the shallots. I just edited it!
Swathi says
Marry me pasta is so delicious I have made it twice. so good. my family recommended.
Tisha says
There is so much flavor in this dish and is absolutely delicious!
Jaleah says
This recipe is a staple in our house. Perfectly flavored and so easy to cook. We never have left overs!!
Michele says
That rich and velvety tomato cream sauce is perfection. Could eat it on everything!
Greta says
I made this today for lunch and came out really delicious! Hearty and flavorful! We loved it 🤩
Lisa says
Hi can the sauce be made the day before?
Nicole Kendrick says
Yes, it will just thicken in the fridge and not be quite as "saucy".
Nikki Sips says
So so easy and we absolutely devoured it!
Nicole Kendrick says
Yay!! So happy you enjoyed it!
Sonja says
Oh yum! Was my first thought eating this when I needed a quick comfort food dinner. But then the possibilities with your recipe hit me and my brain went into a bit of a frenzy thinking up all the combinations I could make with this. I love that I can essentially add nearly any vegetable or meat and the sauce will make it utterly addictive. Do you mind if I borrow this for a future recipe of my own?
Mandy Anderson says
100 ⭐️ ⭐️⭐️
I’ve made it twice, the first time combining the Marry Me Shrimp and the Marry Me Chicken. My family went nuts. The second time was just the chicken. My 14 yr old son said he was addicted and there must be illegal substances in there, while my husband said he’d been robbed having to wait 50 years of life till he had this recipe. It’s not a fluke, it’s just that good. We have a celiac and that’s how I found this recipe. I think (if you were a creative chef) you could play around with it, adding artichoke hearts or other things. We love the spinach and sun dried tomatoes, with mushrooms on the side for my husband. MAKE THIS RECIPE!
NKendrick says
THIS is the best review I have ever seen!!! Thank you so so much!!!!!!
Nils Reinhardt says
Shalots are mentioned in the igredients but not in the instructions I think. It was so delicious. Will cook it again
NKendrick says
Thank you, I will fix that now. They go in at step 2.
Anonymous says
This worked exactly as written, thanks!
Dani says
My family loved this! It was a hit with my kids as well! Thank you!
Kathleen A Sharon says
excellent recipe!