Penne Rosa (A Noodles & Co Copycat!)

So many people have been asking me for the recipe that I posted yesterday (scratch that, about 4 days ago- life has gotten crazy) to my Instagram account. I am always cooking dinners for my family and I promised my younger brother that I would try to make a Penne Rosa dish similar to the one sold at Noodles & Co. Now I have personally never tried the Penne Rosa from Noodles & Co, nor did I try any of this dinner, so I will just have to take my family’s word for it that my dish was a close match! I find it pretty difficult to copy restaurant dishes because there always seems to be some sort of hidden spice/seasoning in them.

This dish is so shocking simple. The ingredients are simple, cheap, and fresh! One way I like to make dishes healthier is adding extra veggies! I also like swapping out unhealthy ingredients for healthier ones (plain greek yogurt for whipping cream in this recipe).

For this dish you will need:

12 oz whole wheat/gluten free/regular Penne Noodles (about 3/4 of a 16oz bag)

2 med/large roma tomatoes

1/2 container of baby bella mushrooms

1.5-2 cups of Roasted Red Pepper 365 Pasta Sauce (from Whole Foods- feel free to experiment with sauce choice)

2 tablespoons Extra Virgin Olive Oil

5 Cloves Minced Garlic

1 container (5.3 oz) Plain 0% Greek Yogurt (I used Fage- highly recommend!)

Parmesan Cheese (Freshly Shredded- Not the kind from the green can!)

3 cups fresh Spinach (Or sub 1 small zucchini)

1/2-1 tsp crushed red pepper (depending on desired spicy-ness)

4-8 servings of preferred protein (I made Grilled Chicken & Shrimp)

Directions:

Begin by defrosting your choice of protein. Then boil water for the noodles. While the water is boiling, chop up all of your vegetables. I chopped up 2 roma tomatoes into small chunks and then chopped up a small zucchini as well. We were out of spinach at my house so I decided to sub zucchini in its place to up the veggie content. To make this recipe closer to the actual Noodles & Co. recipe you should use spinach!

Then, pour about 2 tablespoons of olive oil and minced garlic into a large frying pan. If you are using shrimp as your protein source you should at it to the pan and saute it for a few minutes until it is cooked. Then remove the shrimp from the pan and wrap it in aluminum foil to keep it warm. Then, add the mushrooms and zucchini to the pan.

Cook them until they begin to sweat and then add the sauce, greek yogurt, crushed red pepper, and salt & pepper to taste. While you are cooking the sauce & veggies, continue to check on the boiling water/ cooking noodles.

Heat the sauce mixture up for a few minutes, then add the cooked noodles in along with the roma tomatoes. Cook and stir for 2-3 minutes and then add in the shrimp and spinach (if using both of those things). Stir everything well and serve it up on a plate & top with shredded parmesan cheese!

If you are using chicken for your protein source, cook it to your liking (I suggest seasoning it with Italian seasoning, garlic, pepper, and parmesan) and then slice it up and place it on top of the noodles. That’s it!

This meal is so simple and comes together so quickly. Using greek yogurt in place of heavy whipping cream and doubling up the veggies makes this a much healthier dish! The penne Rosa from Noodles is one of the highest calorie dishes on the menu, so if you are looking to cut down calories, this is the dish for you! It is also way cheaper to make from home! This dish served about 4 for my family, but my brothers eat massive amounts of food, so it would probably serve about 8 for a typical family.

Do you ever try to copy your favorite restaurant foods at home?? What is your favorite noodles & co. dish??? Let me know in the comments! Also, let me know if you try this recipe & how you like it!