Rosé Pasta

This simple, 6-ingredient Creamy Rosé Pasta is unlike any other Rosé Pasta Recipe you'll find on google. For starters, it is a one-pot pasta dish. And it's entirely unique in that it calls for cooking spaghetti directly in rosé wine.

Though this Rosé Pasta Sauce doesn't call for any tomato, it does have a delicious pancetta-shallot-sage topping. So it feels fancy, and tastes absolutely delicious.

You'll want to make this dish all year round due to its simplicity, its flavor, and its impressive presentation.

The ultra-light pink color makes it an exceptionally impressive Mother's Day and Easter dish. And I could see its pancetta-sage topping serving a more festive purpose around Christmas time!

This creamy rosé sauce makes an excellent side dish to a simply-seared steak and pairs well with my other amazing recipe, Arugula Citrus Salad, a bright and crunchy side salad.

How to make Rosé Pasta Sauce

As I mentioned previously, this dish is incredibly simple, only calling for 6 ingredients, 1 pot, and 45 minutes of your time. (including prep)

Ingredients

• A Bottle of Rosé Wine
• Spaghetti
• Shallots
• Pancetta
• Sage
• Mascarpone
• Olive Oil, butter, and salt

See recipe card for quantities.

Instructions

There are 3 main phases of making this Rosé Spaghetti.

Phase 1 - Make the pancetta, shallot, and sage topping.

Use a wide sauté pan such as a 3-quart All Clad, to sauté/fry the pancetta, then shallots, then sage, until nicely browned. Once fried, set each of the 3 ingredients aside on a paper towel-lined plate.

Phase 2- Deglaze the pan with a whole bottle of rose wine, plus some water. This will remove all the delicious fond from the pan and release it into the rosé cooking liquid. Add the spaghetti and salt.

• The rosé will thicken tremendously due to evaporation, the starch of the pasta, and the spaghetti soaking it up. If the spaghetti soaks up too much liquid before it's fully cooked through, add more water, ½ cup at a time, until the pasta is cooked and liquid has mostly evaporated.

Phase 3- Add the mascarpone and more salt if needed. The mascarpone really balances out the intensity of the wine and adds a rich creaminess to the dish. Top with the pancetta-shallot-sage mixture.

Hint: Use a medium flame to cook the pasta. You want to maintain enough heat to cook the pasta but not so much that the liquid evaporates too quickly.

Substitutions

If you'd like to make this creamy Rosé Sauce but need to modify it in some way, here are some options:

• Mascarpone- Mascarpone basically just tastes like a really thick, creamy ricotta. And if you can't find it, ricotta works well too.
• Gluten Free- use your favorite gluten free spaghetti. However, you may need to add more water since many non-wheat pastas take longer to cook.
• Vegetarian- In order to make this dish vegetarian, you could replace the pancetta with sliced mushrooms. You'll also need about 1 tablespoon of olive oil to sauté the mushrooms, whereas the pancetta renders in a dry pan.
• Alcohol-free- The alcohol does not entirely cook off. Therefore, if making this recipe for kids or anyone who cannot have alcohol, use alcohol-free wine.

Variations on Rosé Spaghetti

Because this recipe only has 6 ingredients (aside from salt, olive oil, and butter), there's not much to change.

• Different pasta shapes - Be wary of substituting other pastas that take longer to cook. You'll need to add a lot more water the longer the pasta has to cook to make up for it evaporating.
• Spicy- A simple dusting of crushed red pepper at the end is the best way to add spice to the dish without distracting from the simple, pure flavors.

More One-Pot Pasta Dishes

I was inspired to make this Creamy Rosé Pasta a one-pot pasta recipe after seeing all the ways Ethan Chlebowski has done so on his YouTube channel. He refers to the method as the "Risotto style method".

In other words, you'll likely have to add more liquid to the pot the as pasta cooks, just like when making risotto. Add a little at a time to balance having enough pasta water to cook the pasta, but only as much as you need.

I was admittedly quite skeptical when I first heard about the method, but I soon realized that it saves both time and the number of cooking vessels needed to make pasta.

Equipment Needed to Make Rosé Spaghetti

Equipment can have a large impact on the success of a recipe. I don't recommend a lot of equipment when I write recipes, but I frequently find myself recommending this 3 quart All-Clad Sauté Pan.

I used it to test this recipe and feel it's the perfect size. You wouldn't want to use anything smaller because it has to fit 1 pound of pasta plus wine and water.

There's a 5 quart-option too, but it may have slightly too much surface area, causing too much evaporation while the pasta cooks.

I find the 3-quart option is perfect for cooking meals for up to 6 people.

Tips for Storing Leftovers

If you made this Creamy Rosé Pasta and have more than one serving leftover, I recommend separating them into two containers. Since this pasta dish isn't very saucy, it will continue to thicken up and stick together as it cools.

Therefore, you may find it difficult to separate in order to just heat up one portion.

Reheat the serving in a small sauté pan along with a splash of water to rehydrate it. Good as new!

Top tip

Keep an eye on the pasta while it cooks so you can add water as needed and stir frequently.

Recipe

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