Buy the oil packed, julienne cut sun dried tomatoes. You might find bags of sun dried tomatoes at the grocery store, but keep looking until you find the oil packed ones that come in a jar! Sometimes they come with herbs mixed in and that’s great too! Julienne cut means they are already bite size so they’re the perfect size to garnish this dish without having to do any extra chopping. And that oil that they’re packed in is like liquid gold! Don’t throw it away! You’ll use some of it in this recipe, but it works really well in salad dressings also!

If you don’t have a food processor, you can still make this delicious dinner! Just finely mince the sun dried tomatoes and garlic and mix them up with a couple teaspoons of the sun dried tomato oil. The food processor is basically just doing the mincing in this recipe so it’s not completely necessary.

If you have picky eaters, pulse (or mince) the sun dried tomato and garlic for an extra minute or so in the food processor. You can also skip the garnishes on top so the pasta is just coated in the smooth and creamy sauce. Serving the sauce on the side is also a great way to let your kids try it before smothering all their noodles in it. My daughter will eat any plate of noodles that I put in front of her, regardless of the sauce, but she eats around the parsley and tomatoes every single time!

If you’ll be heating the sauce up later be sure to add a splash of stock or cream to loosen it up a bit. As it sits in the fridge it will thicken up considerably. I’d recommend heating it in a saute pan over medium heat and stirring in a splash of stock or cream as it heats.