I Tried Meredith Hayden’s Most Viral Recipe, and Here’s What I Thought

Everyone who has a TikTok account or even a casual interest in food on social media has heard of Wishbone Kitchen. Meredith Hayden, the creator behind the wildly successful private catering company and food blog, is known for her simple, beautiful recipes that tend to go viral. This one, Wishbone Kitchen’s beet and goat cheese pasta, was no exception; the Internet went nuts for this pink-hued dinner.

The recipe is as simple as it gets, so I wanted to try it and find out if it could possibly taste as good as it looks. After all, I love beets and goat cheese together in a salad, so why not try them with pasta?

How to Make Wishbone Kitchen’s Beet Pasta

Ingredients

• 3 medium-to-large beets, washed, peeled and quartered
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• Kosher salt
• 1 pound rigatoni
• 4 ounces goat cheese
• 1 clove garlic
• 1 pinch cayenne pepper
• 1 tablespoon pistachios, toasted and chopped, for garnish
• Fresh mint leaves, for garnish

Directions

Step 1: Roast the beets

First, you need to roast the beets to make that vibrant sauce. Preheat the oven to 400°F, then line a sheet tray or baking dish with aluminum foil. Toss the beets with olive oil and salt (and pepper, if desired). Then, wrap the beets up in the foil. Roast the beets for 25 minutes or until they’re tender. Once the beets are cooked, unwrap them and set them aside to cool.

Step 2: Cook the pasta

While the beets are cooling, cook the pasta per the package directions in well-salted water. Once the pasta is al dente, drain it, and reserve about a cup of pasta water for the sauce. Set it aside while you make the sauce.

Step 3: Make the sauce

Add the cooked and cooled beets, 3 tablespoons of goat cheese, garlic, 1 tablespoon of olive oil, 1 tablespoon of pasta water, salt and cayenne pepper to a high-powered blender. Blitz the ingredients a few times to break up the beets, then use the reserved pasta water to slowly thin the sauce until it reaches the desired consistency. I used about 1/4 cup of pasta water for this.

Once the sauce is to your liking, combine it with the pasta, stirring until the pasta is evenly coated.

Step 4: Garnish

Plate the pasta and garnish each plate with the remaining goat cheese, chopped pistachios and mint leaves. I also included a little extra drizzle of olive oil, because you can never really have enough.

Wishbone Kitchen Beet Pasta Review

This is the best kind of recipe. The ingredients are simple and it yields a flavorful meal without a lot of work. As delicious as it is visually striking, this beet and goat cheese pasta is the perfect summer dish. Meredith Hayden knows what she’s talking about, and this recipe is proof!

My favorite part of this recipe was how quickly it came together relative to the amount of flavor it delivered. Next time I make it, I might just use precooked beets if I’m in a hurry. I’d also like to try grilling the beets. This recipe could be easily adapted to include some more veggies (how great would asparagus be?!) or grilled chicken. The bottom line is that I’ll be making this all summer in many forms.

Tips for Making Homemade Pasta

• Pick the right shape: Make sure to think about the sauce you’re using when you’re picking the shape of your pasta. This is one of the most important things I learned in Italy; some sauces and shapes are meant to be together. Certain shapes hold sauces differently, so the pasta shapes you’d choose for olive oil and garlic versus this luscious goat cheese and beet sauce are very different.
• Salt the pasta water generously: As the pasta cooks, the salty water will infuse it with delicious flavor. Don’t be shy when you’re salting the water; you’ll dump most of the salt out, and your pasta dishes will taste better for it.

Related:

• Goat Cheese Recipes for People Who Really Love It
• Our Best Beet Recipes
• We Made Ina Garten’s Lemon Capellini—and It’s Her Absolute Best Weeknight Dinner