10-Minute Creamy Italian Pasta Sauce
A Cubbs Creamy Italian sachet turns mayo, milk and a knob of butter into a quick pasta sauce. Surprisingly good with bacon.
Yes, it’s a salad dressing sachet. Yes, it works as a pasta sauce. We’ve tested it on sceptical teenagers.
You’ll need
- 400 g penne, fusilli or rigatoni
- 1 sachet Cubbs Salad Dressing - Creamy Italian (16g)
- ½ cup full-cream milk
- ½ cup mayonnaise or ¾ cup sour cream
- 1 tbsp butter
- 200 g streaky bacon, chopped (optional but recommended)
- Parmesan, black pepper, parsley to serve
Method
- Boil pasta in well-salted water to just under al dente, it’ll finish in the sauce.
- Crisp the bacon in a wide pan over medium-high heat. Remove and set aside, leaving the fat in the pan. (Skip this step if going meat-free; melt the butter instead.)
- Build the sauce: lower heat to medium, add the butter, then whisk in the milk and the Cubbs sachet. Let it bubble gently for 1-2 minutes.
- Add the mayo (or sour cream) off the heat and whisk until smooth. Don’t boil the sauce after this point, it can split.
- Toss the pasta through the sauce with a splash of pasta water to loosen. Add the bacon back.
- Serve immediately with grated parmesan, lots of black pepper, and a few torn parsley leaves.
Try this instead
Swap the Creamy Italian for Creamy Ranch: the result is more like a “dirty” carbonara, perfect with smoked chicken and peas stirred in at the end.