Spinach Cheese Pasta

Other than Indian dishes using spinach (spinach toor dal, aloo palak, palak paneer), I love to cook pasta with spinach as its prime ingredient. Here’s a simple spinach cheese pasta recipe.

You Need:

• Pasta – 2 cups
• Onion – 1, finely chopped
• Garlic – 5 cloves
• Spinach leaves – 2 bunches, cleaned and stems removed
• Cream – 1 tablespoon
• Milk – 1 tablespoon
• Cream cheese – 1 tablespoon
• Salt – to taste
• Oil – 2 teaspoons 

How To Make Spinach Cheese Pasta:

Boil the pasta: Add the pasta to a saucepan of boiling water to which salt and a few drops of oil have been added.  Depending on the thickness of pasta the time to cook could be approximately 8-12 minutes. Pierce with a fork and check. If using fusilli, check the center of the pasta as that takes longer to cook.

When the pasta is done, drain and let cold water run over it (so that it doesn’t cook any further). Keep ready for further use.

Blanch the spinach: Plunge the spinach leaves into boiling water. After two minutes, take the spinach out and transfer to chilled water. You’ll see the green of the spinach turn a beautiful rich shade.

Blend the spinach to puree.

Tip: Don’t discard the water in which the spinach was boiled – use it in soup or to knead atta for rotis.

Make the sauce: Heat oil in a non-stick pan. Add the finely garlic. Stir and add chopped onions. Fry till the onions begin to brown.

Pour in the spinach paste, add a dash of salt.

Cook for 5 minutes. Add the milk, cream and cream cheese. Mix well. 

Put it all together: Finally toss in the boiled pasta. Cook for a minute or two – till the texture becomes thick and all the pasta is coated evenly with the sauce.

Serve spinach cheese pasta hot.

Tips:

This recipe works with different types of pasta. Here’s spinach cheese pasta using fusilli:

…and here’s a bowlful of penne:

• You can cut down on the fat if you so wish – reduce the quantity of cream and cheese.
• Be careful with adding salt, you need less than usual in this dish. Spinach has its own salt, as does most cream cheese – and remember that the pasta has been boiled in salted water already.

Notes:

Looking for more pasta recipes? Try tomato olive capsium pasta, pasta with coriander parsley pesto.