Heart pasta in a toasty brown butter sauce with sprinkled parmesan cheese makes this adorable lunch or dinner option incredibly delicious with very little extra work.
Ever since I was a little girl I remember my mom making me pasta with brown butter sauce. I thought there was something magical to it, and still do. It’s like you are creating magic butter! I also recall thinking that this amazing brown butter sauce required a lot of work to make. After all, brown butter sauce tastes extremely sophisticated – it can only be for adults, right?
Wrong! This simple brown butter pasta sauce with parmesan is on constant request at my house. My kids LOVE it and I do too because it is so super simple to make.
Ingredients for heart pasta with brown butter and parmesan lunchbox
To make this fun and delicious heart pasta with brown butter sauce school lunch meal prep, you’ll need a few ingredients that you can get at almost any grocery store or even online!
This will make 4 lunchbox containers. I love these 3 compartment food containers that I found on Amazon!
Here’s what we are working with:
- heart shaped pasta
- butter
- parmesan cheese
- strawberries optional for lunchbox
- grapes optional for lunchbox
- heart shaped sweet treat optional for lunchbox
How to make heart pasta with brown butter and parmesan lunchbox
- Cook pasta according to package directions
- Make the brown butter sauce; heat a sauce pan over medium heat. Add a stick of butter (if you slice it, it will melt more evenly) and whisk frequently. Continue to cook the butter. Once the melted butter foams up a bit, subside and remove it from the heat. Smell the butter; it should have a nutty aroma when it is done and amber in color with brown specks at the bottom of the pan.
- Place cooked pasta into the main compartment of the lunchbox and drizzle brown butter sauce over along with a sprinkle of parmesan cheese.
- In one side compartment add strawberries and grapes.
- In the other side compartment add your preferred sweet treat; I used shortbread heart cookies.
Why prep lunches for school?
To make meal planning more consistent and practical in my house, I aim to include four school lunch preps for my two kids in our weekly meal prep rotation. This helps us save money and ensure that two days of the week, the kids have well balanced meals that happen to be fun and festive, yet simple enough to put together in less than 15 minutes.
In these lunch preps I try to include a variety of colors as well as a good balance of the essential food groups so that my kids are getting exposure to different foods in a fun and exciting way!
We sure hope you enjoy this fun and festive lunch as much as our little tribe has time and time again. Please leave us a star review and comment if you made this heart pasta with brown butter and parmesan lunch!
Heart Pasta With Brown Butter and Parmesan
- SFSugar Free
- VGVegetarian
Ingredients
- 1 package heart shaped pasta
- 1 stick butter, 8 tablespoons
- ¼ cup grated parmesan cheese
- strawberries, optional, for lunchbox
- grapes, optional, for lunchbox
- heart shaped sweet treat, optional, for lunchbox
Instructions
- Cook pasta according to package directions.
- Make the brown butter sauce; heat a sauce pan over medium heat. Add a stick of butter (if you slice it, it will melt more evenly) and whisk frequently. Continue to cook the butter. Once the melted butter foams up a bit, subside and remove it from the heat. Smell the butter; it should have a nutty aroma when it is done and amber in color with brown specks at the bottom of the pan.
- Place cooked pasta into the main compartment of the lunchbox and drizzle brown butter sauce over along with a sprinkle of parmesan cheese.
- In one side compartment add strawberries and grapes.
- In the other side compartment add your preferred sweet treat; I used shortbread heart cookies.
Did you make this food art lunch? Don’t forget to tag thetastefultribe on instagram @thetastefultribe if you create this fun heart pasta with brown butter sauce lunch. We love seeing your version! You can also post your pictures to our facebook page!