Fennel, sage, and white wine are an A+ flavor combination in this sun dried tomato pasta. You'll love this hearty, comforting, and easy dish!
Happy December! Today we’re celebrating with this bright red & green sun dried tomato pasta.
I have a confession to make. I’m really terrible at decorating for the holidays. Some years it happens, others it doesn’t… and then some years we end up with a Valentine’s Day tree because we lose track of time and the work of taking down decorations is far less fun than putting them up.
So here’s my version of holiday greenery for you – sun dried tomato pasta! It’s, of course, edible, and the clean up is minimal. 🙂 Aside from boiling the pasta, this recipe comes together in one large skillet (or pictured, this pretty braiser), so it’s a great one to have in your back pocket when you need to get a hearty, healthy dinner on the table this winter.
Sun Dried Tomato Pasta Ingredients
This sun dried tomato pasta is full of all kinds of warming wintery goodness! It has a base of sautéed shallots, fennel, and savory, aromatic sage. Sun dried tomatoes add briny pop, kale makes it fresh & green, and (of course) lemon juice adds a bit of bright cheer. I also toss in some walnuts for crunch. Their slightly bitter flavor is delicious with the wintry vegetables, but if you don’t have them on hand, pine nuts would be a great choice too.
I used a fancy pasta shape called toscani because I just love the way the kale wraps around the short curly noodles. However, if you can’t find it, you can use any short cut pasta that you like.
Serve with olive oil for drizzling and (not pictured, but highly recommended) freshly grated pecorino cheese!
If you love this sun dried tomato pasta recipe…
Try my linguine, orecchiette, lasagna, mushroom pasta, mac and cheese, or roasted vegetable pasta next!
Sun Dried Tomato Pasta with Kale
- 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, more for drizzling
- 3 shallots, thinly sliced
- 1 large fennel bulb, thinly sliced
- 3 garlic cloves, sliced
- ¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes
- ¼ cup chopped sage
- 12-ounces toscani pasta (or any short pasta)
- ¼ cup dry white wine
- 8 cups torn kale leaves
- 8 oil-packed sun-dried tomatoes, chopped
- ¼ cup chopped walnuts, toasted
- 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
- Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
- Freshly grated pecorino cheese, for serving
- Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the shallots, fennel, garlic, red pepper flakes, sage, ½ teaspoon salt, and freshly ground black pepper and cook until the fennel is tender, about 8 minutes.
- Meanwhile, bring a large pot of salted water to a boil and cook the pasta until al dente.
- To the skillet, add the white wine and let it reduce for 30 seconds. Then, reduce the heat to low, add the kale and toss until just wilted. Use a slotted spoon to scoop the cooked pasta into the skillet. Add the sun-dried tomatoes, walnuts, and lemon juice and toss.
- Finally, season to taste and serve with generous drizzles of olive oil and freshly grated pecorino cheese.
Made this tonight. It was delicious. My husband and I both loved it and will recommend it to our daughters. We used whole grain reginetti pasta cooked Al Dente!
Made this today. Was missing a couple of ingredients. Used fresh basil, fresh rosemary and feta.
Just made and ate this today – what a fantastic recipe – easy to make and so tasty. Each ingredient just right! Absolutely loved it!
Hi Wendy, I’m so glad you loved it!
Excellent! Will be making it again.
Hi Suzanne, I’m so glad you enjoyed it!
Fennel isn’t available at my grocery store right now, so can you please recommend some alternative vegetables in lieu of it? (I’m thinking: zucchini & red bell pepper.)
Hi Laurie, zucchini would work, but I would cook it for less time – about 2 minutes (not 8) or it will get too watery.
Broccoli or broccolini could also sub in. You could also just skip it and it’ll be a delicious kale pasta. Hope that helps!
First thing I’ve ever made from your blog (I’m brand new) and it was divine – absolutely perfect and so simple to throw together. Can’t wait to try more recipes!
I’m so glad you loved it!!
Absolutely loved this recipe! Added a couple more tomatoes and some shiitake mushrooms. Would make it again!
If I see sage, I’ll always try a recipe. I made the dish for me and my husband, and we loved it! It’s nice because it’s packed with flavor, but it isn’t a heavy pasta dish since the “sauce” is just the white wine and what’s left in the pan. The pepper flakes, pecorino, and lemon add nice flavor. We ran out of walnuts so I substituted them with cashews. I made ground spicy turkey on the side for my husband to add in.
Hi Christine,
So happy to hear from a fellow sage lover! I’m so glad you both enjoyed the recipe 🙂
I love the recepie
I loved the textures but found the dish to be a little dry and in need of more flavor…I was unable to find shallots so used a tiny bit of onion powder…and I might have used too small of a head of fennel…not sure but with all the ingredients I really thought the flavor would pop.. any ideas?
Hi Susan, if you can’t find shallots, I would substitute with a thinly sliced small yellow onion – there’s much more water content and sweet/caramelized flavor in the shallots (or fresh onion) than in the dehydrated powder, so I think that was likely the issue.
Awesome healthy recipe. Made it last night and the family loved it! -joe
Hi, could you suggest a good alternate for sage?
Hi Lily, I think rosemary would be delicious – I would try about 1 teaspoon, freshly chopped. Hope that helps!
Delicious! We didn’t have time to toast the walnuts, but it was a very tasty recipe. Even our toddler enjoyed it (although the tomatoes were pushed to the side per usual). Thanks for another good one!
We really enjoyed this pasta! Nice flavors and not a heavy dish. A great weeknight dinner option.
Hi Susan, I’m so glad to hear!!
I should stop being surprised at how good the recipes are from love and lemons! But this is another great recipe. I was out of fennel so I made it without and this was still so good. No too heavy, very easy to make, meat free, and simple enough even for picker eaters. Thanks for another great recipe. 🙂
Aww, I love hearing that! I’m so glad your family loved the pasta 🙂
This would make a great holiday side dish. Love it!
This was very good-enjoyed all the textures/flavors popping delight in my mouth! I used bow tie pasta. Next time I will use a few more walnuts
Hello, in your picture it looks like it has chives? Just checking because I love chives!
Hi Isabelle, in an earlier version of the recipe, I was using scallions instead of the shallots – but if you love chives toss some on! They’d be great 🙂
Another keeper. Cooked as posted. D E L I C I O U S ! Thank you Jeanine.
Yay, thanks Gil! Appreciate your feedback!
what about this for a tree and decorations: a rosemary topiary in a cone shape with red dried chili peppers, dried shitaki mushrooms and kumquats as decorations. Just stick a short wire through the peppers, mushrooms, star anise and kumquats, bend at both ends and hang on ‘tree’. Use throughout the holidays for cooking. Voila no clean up.