Creamy Caramelized Shallot Pasta

This 4 ingredient creamy caramelized shallot pasta combines the sweet and savory flavor of cooked shallots with a creamy and herbaceous sauce. Ready in just 20 minutes this dish is a perfect single serving pasta, or more if you like, for any time or day of the week.

JUST KEEP COOKING, JUST KEEP COOKING….

The most important step, and only one of 4 steps in this recipe is caramelizing the shallots. Unlike their cousin the onion, shallots don’t take that long to caramelize. In fact, as long as you keep a good eye on them and mix them often you can have caramelized shallots in about 10-12 minutes. While this step is incredibly easy, it is so important to not undercook or even worse overcook the shallots. Undercook them and you will be left with little to no flavor. Overcook them and well you might be left with a bitter aftertaste. What you are looking for are all the shallots, not half, to be a medium brown color, well past golden. Check out the step by step below, or the recipe card on careful instructions.

WHAT YOU’LL NEED TO MAKE CARAMELIZED SHALLOT PASTA

• Pasta– This quick and easy sauce tastes best on a small pasta, don’t ask me why it just does. Orzo, Pastina, Stelline are best, hell even use alphabet pasta. The pasta pictured is surprisingly Target’s Good & Gather Stelline pasta linked HERE!
• Shallots – 2 shallots per serving of pasta, minced super small.
• Boursin – Shallot & chive flavor only. As you can imagine this flavor plays off of the caramelized shallots. This dish is not the same if you substitute for the garlic & herb flavored Boursin. If you must must must substitute because you can’t find this flavor then you can swap out for cream cheese and fresh chives. Doing this however will not taste the same.
• Butter

That is it, 4 ingredients.

HOW TO MAKE CARAMELIZED SHALLOT PASTA

Caramelize the Shallots – In a small pot over medium to low heat add the butter. Once melted and bubbly toss in the shallots, reduce the heat, and cook down. Just keep cooking until medium brown, this will take approximately 10-12 minutes depending on how low the heat is. Mix or toss every 30 or so seconds to ensure even cooking. While this is super easy below are trouble shooting points.

• They aren’t turning brown. Just keep cooking them, your heat might be too low. Try raising it a touch or just cook further.
• Some pieces are brown and some are white. You need to mix more often, lower the heat and stir every so often.
• They are bitter. Unfortunately you overcooked your shallots, especially if they are dark dark brown. there isn’t a fix for this, however next time pull them off the heat sooner or lower the heat.

Make it Creamy – On low heat add in the Boursin and break up with the back of a spoon. Combine with the shallots. This will not resemble a sauce, just a mound of cheese with shallots.

Add in Pasta Water + Pasta – Add in 2 tbsp of pasta water to loosen up the shallot Boursin. Cook for 15-30 seconds and toss in your pasta. If it is still too thick add in another tbsp of water.

As with the majority of cream sauces this is best served hot-warm and immediately. I do not suggest making this in advance. With that said you can caramelize the shallots in advance, when ready to make the pasta heat them up in the pan for a minute before adding the Boursin. While this is a single serving pasta it is super easy to increase the servings, just double or tripped the below recipe.

BONUS* Make it Crispy– To add another layer to this dish I topped it with crispy fried shallots. They are super easy to make, but do take a hot second. In a small pot add about 1/2 inch of canola or vegetable oil, and heat over medium heat. Once hot, drop in sliced shallots and cook for 15-20 minutes until medium brown in color. With a fork move them around every few minutes to separate the rings and to ensure even cooking. Watch out! they go from brown the burnt in a minute. Remove and drain on a paper towel for 2-3 minutes until they are crispy.

Need more creamy dishes? I got you!

Buffalo Chicken Pasta – Another easy Boursin pasta sauce.
Lemon Caper Pasta
Creamy Roasted Garlic Gnocchi