The humble carrot takes center stage in this delicious pasta dish! The strands of julienned carrot are cooked in honey butter until they melt in the mouth and can be twirled with spaghetti! Salty feta cheese gives a contrasting tang and makes the dish slightly creamy. Best of all, it is incredibly simple to make with a short ingredient list. You will love this for a cheap winter comfort food dish!
So I overbought carrots over the holidays, and memories of my honey sage Christmas carrots were fresh in my mind, so I decided to try out a meal that would put them front and center. And this pasta dish was born! And it’s incredibly tasty, while being cheap and straightforward to make, so kind of the perfect January recipe then?
I found that the best way to combine pasta and carrots is to use spaghetti and julienned or spiralized carrots. The carrots can cook down into really soft thin strands, so they can be tossed and twirled together with the spaghetti. This way, I find that you can use a lot of carrot without being overwhelmed by it. It does take a little extra work if you’re doing this by hand, but if you have a julienne peeler, spiralizer or vegetable chopper you won’t find it too onerous.
We cook the carrots low and slow with shallots, honey, butter and sage for a really great flavor that feels kind of fancy despite being super low budget. Then it all gets tossed with some feta cheese for salty, tangy balance and a slightly creamy finish.
What to know about the ingredients and substitutions
- You do not need the expensive feta! I wanted this recipe to be cheap and cheerful, so this was important. Most of my tests used the cheapest feta-style cheeses such as “greek cheese” or “salad cheese” (the stuff they aren’t even allowed to call feta because it’s made with cow’s milk or otherwise doesn’t follow the rules of true feta). And it always tasted great. The flavors and textures of these cheeses can vary a little but it always worked out.
- Shallots could be replaced with red or white onion, but slice it into thin strands.
- Any long pasta shape (linguine, tagliatelle, bucatini, angel hair, etc) will work fine here. If you really need to use a short pasta shape (penne, rigatoni, etc) consider grating the carrots in smaller match stick sized pieces or even slicing the carrot into very thin rounds.
- Sage is quite perfect here, and the strength of flavor you get from fresh sage leaves makes a real difference to the dish. I have never tried it with anything else. If you want to use something like thyme, rosemary or another winter herb – feel free. I am not sure it will be as flavorful but if you’re not a fan of sage, or if you you don’t have any available, it’s worth a try.
- Honey can be runny or cloudy. It could also be swapped for maple syrup.
- I highly recommend using the salted butter, the flavor is unbeatable. But if you need to use unsalted butter, or olive oil, just make sure to season the carrots really well while they cook.
Recipes that will help use up your last carrots…
Carrot, Sage and Feta Pasta
Ingredients
- 400 g (14 oz) carrots , julienned or spiralized
- 3 shallots, thinly sliced
- 85 g (⅓ cup) salted butter
- 3 cloves garlic, crushed
- 2 tbsp honey
- 4 tbsp fresh sage leaves, chopped
- 250 g (9 oz) spaghetti
- 200 g (7 oz) feta cheese, crumbled
- salt and pepper, to taste
- lemon wedges, for serving
Instructions
- In a large nonstick saute pan, melt the butter over a very low heat and add the carrots and shallots. Mix through just to get everything coated with the butter.400 g carrots, 85 g salted butter, 3 shallots
- Add the honey, garlic and sage and mix through until the honey is melted through. Season liberally with salt and pepper.3 cloves garlic, 2 tbsp honey, 4 tbsp fresh sage leaves, salt and pepper
- Saute for 20 minutes, uncovered, stirring regularly. We want to keep the heat very low, so the carrots and shallots soften and reduce but don't brown, and the garlic, butter and sage don't burn. At the end of this time, your carrots should have reduced a fair amount in size and be reasonably soft.
- Boil the spaghetti according to package instructions. Once the spaghetti is cooked al dente, reserve a cup of the cooking water before draining.(During this time you can leave the carrots cooking – we want their total cook time to be around 30 minutes.)250 g spaghetti
- Add about 1/3rd of the feta cheese to the carrots and turn up the heat to medium. Let the cheese melt through, then add a few tablespoons of the pasta's cooking water and stir through. Keep adding a splash at a time until a slightly creamy sauce has formed around the carrots. I usually use around 1/2 cup (125ml) of the cooking water in total.200 g feta cheese
- Add the spaghetti and the remaining feta to the pan. Toss through. The feta will melt a little but you'll still have some distinct pieces.
- Serve, with lemon wedges for squeezing.
