This spinach tomato pasta is rich, smooth and stacked with flavor. Even better, it’s totally made in one pot!
Back at it again with another simple and delightful midweek pasta formula. This time we’re stacking it with tart sun dried tomatoes, delicious spinach and an entire heap of smooth goodness.
This comes from two unique fixings: sun dried tomatoes and tomato glue. The sun dried tomatoes not just add a touch of surface to the sauce, yet they add decent hit of tart tomatoey goodness. I suggest utilizing sun dried tomatoes in oil so you can utilize a portion of the oil to begin broiling the onions! The tomato glue offers the greater part of the tomato flavor. It’s critical to broil it off for a couple of mins, this will eliminate the acidic edge of the glue and turn it somewhat sweet.
This obviously comes from the cream, however a portion of the richness really comes from the actual pasta. Since it’s totally cooked in one pot, a great deal of the starch from the pasta fuses with the sauce and emulsifies every one of the fats. This thus helps turn the sauce quite reflexive/velvety.
Ingredients:
- 14oz / 400g Penne, uncooked
- 4 cups / 1 litre Chicken Stock, not piping hot!
- 1 cup / 250ml Double/Heavy Cream, at room temp
- 1 cup / 125g Sun Dried Tomatoes, finely diced
- 1/3 cup / 3oz / 85g Tomato Paste (Tomato Puree in UK)
- 1/2 cup / 40g freshly grated Parmesan
- 1/4 cup finely diced Fresh Basil
- 4oz / 120g Baby Spinach
- 1 medium White Onion, finely diced
- 3 cloves of Garlic, minced/finely diced
- 1 tbsp Sun Dried Tomato Oil (or Olive Oil)
- 1/4 – 1/2 tsp Chilli Flakes, or to preference
Instructions:
- In a large pot over medium heat add oil and begin frying the onion. Once soft & slightly browned, add in sun dried tomatoes & garlic and fry for a further couple of minutes.
- Add tomato paste and fry for 2-3mins, then pour in chicken stock. Give it a stir to blend in the tomato puree and deglaze the pan, then pour in cream (important the cream is at room temp and the stock isn’t too hot or the cream may curdle).
- Add a chilli flakes, salt and pepper (to taste) then add uncooked pasta. Turn heat to low medium and keep it on a gentle simmer until the pasta is about 75% cooked (stirring fairly frequently). Add in spinach & basil and continue stirring until the spinach wilts down. If the sauce soaks up before the pasta/spinach is cooked add in more hot water or stock as needed. You’re looking for it to be al dente though (still a teeny bit hard).
- Stir in parmesan, then serve up and enjoy!
Notes:
- Stock/Cream – Try and make the stock a little ahead of time so it’s not boiling hot, and make sure the cream is room temp (or close to). If you pour cold cream into a pot of hot stock you risk it curdling.
- Basil – You could use dried basil (2 tsp should suffice) but add it in with the salt&pepper and chilli flakes, just so it’s go times to infuse the sauce.
- Calories – one portion (1/4 of whole recipe).
