Tuscan Pasta with Spinach
We got the idea for this recipe from a similar recipe that uses chicken. We found that the chicken made it too heavy and decided to try it without it. We prefer it that way but did up the spinach content. Don’t be put off by the long list of ingredients, it really is worth cooking and is very easy to do.
Tuscan Pasta with Spinach
Servings: 2 people
Calories: 653kcal
Ingredients
- 150 g Rigatoni this is a particularly good pasta for this dish but you can use others if you prefer
- 1 tbsp Olive Oil use old slag, save extra virgin for salads!
- 1 Onion finely chopped
- ¼ tsp Freshly Ground Pepper
- 1 tsp Paprika not smoked, just normal!
- ¼ tsp Garlic Powder
- ¼ tsp Dried Thyme
- 1 pinch Salt
- 2 cloves Garlic grated
- 80 g Sun Dried Tomatoes roughly chopped
- 1 tbsp Tomato Purée
- 1 Red Pepper we like the pointy ones for this. Just deseed and slice into 3mm slices
- 50 ml White Wine it needs to be good enough to drink!
- 120 ml Chicken Stock substitute vegetable stock for a vegetarian dish
- 40 ml Cream we use lactose free cream as one of us is lactose intolerant
- 25g Parmesan Cheese freshly grated
- 100 g Spinach
Instructions
- Bring a large pan of heavily salted water to the boil and cook the rigatoni (or other pasta) for 1 minute less than it says on the packet, then drain but keep back a tablespoon of the cooking water
- Heat the oil in a large frying pan and add the onion. Fry the onion for a few minutes until it is starting to become translucent, then add the salt, pepper, oregano, thyme, paprika and garlic powder. Mix with the onion and cook until the onion is transparent
- Next add the garlic, sun dried tomatoes, red pepper and tomato purée. Cook for a few minutes keeping everything moving so that nothing sticks to the pan
- Add the white wine and use it to deglaze the pan. Allow it to bubble up for a couple of minutes until the alcohol has burned off, then add the stock, bring it to a boil and simmer for 5 minutes
- Add in the cooked pasta, the reserved cooking water, the cream, parmesan cheese and the spinach. Keep turning the spinach in the creamy sauce until it has wilted. Garnish with a sprinkle of parsley if you have it, but it isn't worth buying a supermarket packet for such a small amount and it won't taste any different for not having it!
Nutrition
Calories: 653kcal | Carbohydrates: 93g | Protein: 25g | Fat: 21g | Saturated Fat: 8g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 2g | Monounsaturated Fat: 9g | Cholesterol: 33mg | Sodium: 467mg | Potassium: 2137mg | Fiber: 10g | Sugar: 23g | Vitamin A: 6071IU | Vitamin C: 37mg | Calcium: 302mg | Iron: 7mg