Believe it or not, this Barbie-inspired pink pasta gets its incredibly bright colour naturally from beets! After being roasted, beets are blended with mascarpone, parmesan, lemon and garlic to create a velvety pasta sauce. This simple recipe has a short ingredient list and comes together really quickly but to save even more time, you can always use precooked beets from the grocery store instead. Give this pasta a try — it’s fresh, summery and Barbie would certainly approve!
ingredients
directions
Preheat oven to 425°F. Toss scrubbed beets with olive oil and ½ teaspoon salt until well coated. Wrap beets tightly in two layers of aluminum foil and place them on a baking sheet. Once the oven reaches temperature, roast beets for 50 minutes – 1 hour or until fork-tender. Remove beets from the foil and allow to cool slightly before rubbing the skins off with a paper towel. Slice them into quarters and set aside.
Add cooled beets to a blender along with the remaining salt, 1 cup of mascarpone, lemon juice, zest, garlic, grated parmesan and pepper. Blend on high for 1-2 minutes until everything is smooth and well combined. Season to taste with more salt and pepper.
Cook pasta according to the instructions on the box until al dente. Drain the pasta, reserving a cup of cooking water, and return to the pot.
Over medium heat, stir in the beet sauce and toss to coat the noodles evenly, adding a little splash of pasta water to bind everything together.
Plate each serving of pasta with a dollop of the reserved mascarpone, olive oil, a squeeze of lemon and garnish with basil. Serve immediately.
