Mardi Gras Pasta
August 12, 2026
This is the shortest recipe on our blog, and that’s the entire point.
Mardi Gras Pasta is four ingredients and twenty minutes. Boil the pasta, warm the sauce, toss them together, top with Parmesan. There’s no browning meat, no building a sauce, no chopping anything. On a Tuesday when everybody’s hungry and nobody wants to cook, this is dinner.
The reason it works is the sauce. We make our Mardi Gras Pasta Sauce in-house, and the meat is already in it — so you’re not shortcutting flavor to save time. You’re just letting somebody else do the long part.
Why the Sauce Does the Heavy Lifting
A proper Cajun cream sauce is a project. You’re browning meat, cooking down the trinity, building a roux, adjusting the seasoning, and tasting your way to something balanced. It’s an hour of real work, minimum, and it uses three pans.
Ours is made from scratch at the shop in small batches, with the protein already cooked into it. That’s the part that surprises people the first time: you genuinely do not need to add meat. Adding more usually just crowds it out.
Mardi Gras Pasta
Prep time: 5 minutes Cook time: 20 minutes Serves: 4
You’ll Need
- 1 container Lil Butcher Shoppe Mardi Gras Pasta Sauce
- 12 ounces penne or rotini pasta
- ½ cup grated Parmesan cheese
- Red Lobster Cheddar Bay Biscuits (we keep the mix in stock at the shop)
Let’s Cook
- Prepare the pasta according to the package directions. Salt the water well — it’s the only chance you get to season the pasta itself.
- While the pasta cooks, warm the Mardi Gras Pasta Sauce in a large skillet or saucepan over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally. Keep the heat gentle; you’re reheating it, not cooking it again.
- Drain the pasta and add it directly to the sauce. Toss until everything is evenly coated.
- Top with Parmesan and serve with warm Cheddar Bay Biscuits.
Since the Mardi Gras Pasta Sauce already includes protein, there is no need to add any extra meat.
Make the Biscuits While the Pasta Boils
Cheddar Bay Biscuits and a bowl of Cajun cream pasta belong together — the biscuit is soft, buttery and garlicky, and it’s the right tool for getting the last of the sauce out of the bowl.
The timing works out almost perfectly. The mix takes about five minutes to stir together and 15 minutes in the oven, so if you preheat before you start the water, the biscuits come out right around the time the pasta is done. Brush them with the garlic butter packet the second they leave the oven, while they’re still hot enough to soak it in.
We keep the mix on the shelf at the shop, so it goes in the same basket as the sauce.
Tips from Behind the Counter
Save a little pasta water. Drain the pasta but keep half a cup of the starchy water. If the sauce tightens up when it hits the noodles, a splash loosens it and helps it cling.
Don’t overcook the pasta. Pull it a minute shy of the package time. It’ll finish in the warm sauce, and slightly firm pasta holds up better against a rich sauce than soft pasta does.
Ridged shapes hold more sauce. Penne and rotini are called for here because the grooves grab sauce. Rigatoni and cavatappi work just as well. Spaghetti is the one shape that doesn’t quite do it justice.
Grate your own Parmesan. Same story as bagged shredded cheese — the pre-grated stuff has anti-caking agents that keep it from melting cleanly into the sauce.
It reheats well. Add a splash of milk or broth in the pan and warm it slowly. Microwaving it on high tends to break the sauce.
Ways to Change It Up
- Add fresh spinach to the sauce as it warms. It wilts in a minute and adds color without competing.
- A squeeze of lemon at the end brightens up a rich, creamy sauce more than you’d expect.
- Sliced smoked sausage if you want it heartier — Original or Jalapeño & Cheddar browned in a dry pan first. It doesn’t need it since there’s already some of our sausage in there, but nobody’s stopping you.
- Bake it. Toss the pasta and sauce, pour it into a dish, cover with mozzarella and run it under the broiler for a few minutes.
- Serve it as a side with smothered pork chops or a steak from the counter if you’re feeding a crowd.
One Stop for Dinner in Hattiesburg
Four ingredients, one store. Our shop at 1910 Broadway Drive carries the Mardi Gras Pasta Sauce, the pasta, the Parmesan and the Cheddar Bay Biscuit mix — so this whole dinner is one basket and one line.
We’ve been family owned and operated in Hattiesburg since 1991. Along with the fresh meat counter, the case is full of homemade cooking that’s already done for you: stuffed potatoes, boudin, gumbo, meatloaf, chicken pot pies, crawfish pies and stuffed bell peppers.
Hours: Monday–Tuesday and Thursday–Saturday, 9:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Closed Wednesday and Sunday. Phone: 601-261-2765 Address: 1910 Broadway Drive, Hattiesburg, MS 39401 — get directions or reach out
Outside the area? Our smoked sausage ships nationwide, and you can find us on the shelf at stores across Mississippi and the Gulf South.