Greek Yogurt Pasta Recipe
This Greek yogurt pasta recipe is quick, simple, and absolutely mouthwatering. The sauce is made entirely with yogurt, bacon, Parmesan, and hot pasta cooking water.
Adam and I almost always have a large tub of Greek yogurt in the fridge, which is exactly how this dish came to be. I was craving a creamy pasta but wanted to lean on the lighter side.
It turns out that if you toss hot pasta, Greek yogurt, bacon, and cheese with a good splash of starchy pasta water, you get a rich, high-protein pasta sauce. It is lighter than a traditional cream sauce but just as delicious, especially with a bit of fresh lemon squeezed over the top.
Key Ingredients
- Pasta: We really love a short pasta shape for this (think penne, spirals, or ziti), as it tends to pick up more of the creamy yogurt sauce.
- Snap Peas: We love tossing veggies into this dish, and snap peas are perfect. You can cook them with the pasta. Just wait until the pasta is almost done, and then tumble the snap peas into the boiling water. This works for broccoli florets or regular peas, too. (We love snap peas and also use them to make our sugar snap pea salad.)
- Greek Yogurt: This is the base of our pasta sauce, so choose something you enjoy. We love whole-milk yogurt for this one.
- Bacon: Greek yogurt on its own is a bit tangy and missing something, but when you mix it with smoky bacon, everything changes. Pancetta—like what’s used for carbonara pasta—is a good option, too.
- Cheese: We love rounding out our sauce with some Parmesan or Pecorino Romano and like using our microplane grater to finely grate the cheese (it melts into the sauce better this way).
- Lemon and Chives: These are the finishing touches that really bring the whole dish to life. You’ll squeeze over the juice of a lemon and finish with fresh chopped chives. Green onions are a good substitute for the chives.
Find the full recipe with measurements below.
How to Make Greek Yogurt Pasta
Tip 1: Cook the veggies with the pasta. The trick to the veggies is to cook them in the pasta water. Just add them a few minutes before your pasta is done, and you’re set. The snap peas in our photos take about 3 minutes, so I like setting my timer 3 minutes before the pasta cooking directions recommend, then dropping them in when it goes off.
Tip 2: Don’t miss the bacon. Greek yogurt in this sauce, without the bacon, is missing something, but when you add the bacon (and a bit of the rendered fat), it transforms into a pasta sauce. Cut your bacon into small pieces, then cook them until crisp.
As you cook bacon, do it over medium to medium-low heat. We like looking for the fat bubbling and foaming around the bacon, which is when you know the fat is rendering nicely.
Tip 3: Building the pasta sauce. When the pasta, veggies, and bacon are done, you can toss everything together. Just pile everything into the same pan you cooked the bacon in, then add a good splash of hot pasta water to loosen things up a bit. Toss until well coated, then serve with a little fresh lemon and parmesan on top.
If the sauce seems too thick, don’t be afraid to add a bit more pasta water (before draining the pasta, I always save a mug-full of the hot water for this very purpose).
More Simple Pasta Recipes
Greek Yogurt Pasta
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This easy pasta recipe transforms simple Greek yogurt into a creamy, protein-packed pasta sauce. You just toss plain yogurt with Parmesan, bacon, and a splash of hot, starchy pasta water to pull it all together. We both love the addition of bacon, as it brings a smoky, sweet flavor that perfectly counters the tangy yogurt. While we use snap peas below, feel free to swap them out for broccoli florets or English peas.
4 Servings
You Will Need
Fine sea salt
12 ounces (340 g) pasta, such as penne or spiral
1 (16-ounce / 454 g) package frozen sugar snap peas
2 teaspoons extra-virgin olive oil
4 slices thick-cut bacon, cut into ¼-inch pieces
1 cup (240 g) plain whole-milk Greek yogurt
2 ounces Pecorino Romano cheese, finely grated on a microplane, 1 heaping packed cup (55g), plus more for serving
¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, plus more for serving
1 lemon, halved
Fresh chives, finely chopped, for serving
Directions
1Bring a large pot of heavily salted water to a boil. Add the pasta and set a timer for 3 minutes less than the package instructions. When the timer goes off, add the frozen sugar snap peas. Cook until the pasta is al dente. Reserve 1 cup of the pasta cooking water, then drain the pasta and snap peas.
2Meanwhile, in a large skillet, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add the bacon and cook, stirring occasionally, until the fat has rendered and the bacon is crisp. If the bacon renders an excessive amount of fat, carefully spoon off and discard the excess, leaving about 2 tablespoons in the skillet.
3Remove the skillet from the heat. Add the drained pasta and snap peas, Greek yogurt, Parmesan, ⅓ cup of the reserved pasta water, and black pepper. Toss well to combine. If the sauce seems too thick, gently stir in more of the reserved pasta water a splash at a time, until it reaches your desired consistency.
4Taste the sauce and season with additional salt and pepper as needed. Squeeze the juice from the lemon over the pasta, toss once more, and serve topped with chives, a few generous grinds of pepper, and additional Parmesan.
Adam and Joanne’s Tips
- The nutrition facts provided are estimates.
Nutrition Per Serving
Serving Size
1/4 of the recipe
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Calories
527
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Total Fat
15.1g
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Saturated Fat
6.1g
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Cholesterol
35.4mg
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Sodium
428.3mg
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Carbohydrate
69.9g
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Dietary Fiber
3.4g
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Total Sugars
6.5g
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Protein
26.7g
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