-
Simple Pasta with Spinach, Mushrooms and Tomatoes
This is one of those simple recipes that are almost embarrassing to put on this website. But this was really tasty and healthy, and our kids devoured it. I have everything being prepared in parallel, so the whole dish takes less than 25 minutes start to finish. If you're tight on time, this is a winner! Ingredients
- 1 box (about 16 oz) penne pasta (we use Barilla Plus and love it...much healthier than plain semolina pasta)
- 1 jar good marinara (I used Trader Joes tomato & basil)
- 1 pound fresh spinach (frozen would probably work in a pinch)
- 3-4 ounces dried mushrooms reconstituted (I used Costco's dried gourmet mushroom blend...a good investment!)
- Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
- Grated fresh Parmesan cheese (about 2-3 Tbsp)
Directions
- Put two quarts of water and generous sprinkling of salt on to boil in a large pot.
- Put the dried mushrooms in a bowl with very hot water and cover.
- Put the marinara in a sauce pan, cover, and bring to boil then reduce to simmer.
- As soon as the water in the pasta pot boils, put the fresh spinach in. Blanch for 2-3 minutes until softened. Place a colander over a large pasta pot. Pour the hot water and spinach through the colander. Remove the colander with the spinach and place pasta pot with the hot water from the spinach back on the stove and bring to boil.
- Cut the spinach a bit further using kitchen shears and add to the simmering marinara. Drain the mushrooms, chop as desired, and add to the marinara. Stir, taste, and season with kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste.
- When the water in the pasta pot boils, add the penne and another generous sprinkling of salt.
- When the penne is done as you like, drain the water and return the penne to the pot. Using a spatula, add all of the marinara to the penne and stir to coat. Add a tablespoon of freshly grated Parmesan cheese and stir again. Serve in bowls and sprinkle with additional fresh Parmesan cheese.
- Goes very well with a crusty Italian bread.
Share Recipe
Similar Recipes
Reviews
For a dish that can be thrown together last minute, with minimal effort, this is amazingly good.
It was everything you promised - quick, delicious, and family-pleasing. I had some doubts about using so much spinach, but it all cooks down and becomes a great way to get lots of vegetables into the meal-in-one. I did take some liberties with the recipe. I heated the marinara in a large pot so I could cook down the vegetables in it, rather than separately. Could not locate the dried gourmet mushroom blend at Costcos - we all know how that goes - feast to famine. So I bit the bullet and prepared fresh sliced. After partially chopping the raw spinach, I put it and the mushrooms into the sauce and simmered together for a half hour til vegetables were done and flavors blended. It will be fun to experiment with a variety of pasta for this.1
What's not to like!
Leave a review or comment
Comments