Tuscan Pasta with Spinach

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Prep Time5

Cook Time25

Course: Main Course

Cuisine: Italian

Keyword: red pepper, rigatoni, spinach, sun dried tomatoes

Servings: people

Calories: 653kcal

Author: Chief Cook and Bottle Washer

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

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!