Back at it again with another easy and delicious midweek pasta recipe. This time we’re loading it with tangy sun dried tomatoes, juicy spinach and a whole load of creamy goodness. Sound good? Follow me…
Creamy Tomato Spinach Pasta
The tomato part
This comes from two different ingredients: sun dried tomatoes and tomato paste. The sun dried tomatoes not only add a bit of texture to the sauce, but they add nice hit of tangy tomatoey goodness. I recommend using sun dried tomatoes in oil so you can use some of the oil to start frying the onions! The tomato paste offers the bulk of the tomato flavour. It’s important to fry it off for a few mins, this will remove the acidic edge of the paste and turn it slightly sweet. Don’t skip this step!
The creamy part
This of course comes from the cream, but some of the creaminess actually comes from the pasta itself. Because it’s all cooked in one pot, a lot of the starch from the pasta incorporates with the sauce and helps emulsify all the fats. This in turn helps turn the sauce nice and glossy/creamy.
The spinach part
I recommend adding the spinach towards the end. You really only need it to wilt down enough to mix in with the sauce. If you add it right at the beginning it’ll turn into mush!
One Pot Tomato Spinach Pasta
Why make one pot pasta?
Convenience – there’s no denying the ease of one pot pasta dishes, especially as a no-fuss midweek dinner. Who doesn’t live for less washing up?! Pasta Flavour – as the pasta cooks it also takes on the flavour of the liquid it’s cooking in.
What Pasta to use?
I love using penne, just so the sauce and spinach can ooze its way in and around the pasta. In reality though any short cut pasta will do the trick!
Stock/Cream temperature
Ensure you make your stock ahead of time to allow it to cool slightly, and also ensure your cream is at room temp. Otherwise you increase the chance of the cream curdling when they combine! Process shots: add onion & oil to pot (photo 1), fry (photo 2) fry sun dried tomatoes and garlic (photo 3), fry tomato paste (photo 4), add stock, cream and seasoning (photo 5), add pasta and simmer (photo 6), add basil and spinach (photo 7), stir and simmer until cooked (photo 8).
Serving Tomato Spinach Pasta
What do I do if the pasta doesn’t cook?
This will produce a fairly thick sauce, but still properly cooked pasta. The pasta should always be a little al dente (have a bit of a bite to it), but if the spinach or pasta isn’t fully cooked just add in more hot stock or water as needed.
What to serve with tomato spinach pasta?
Gotta be some homemade garlic bread (Or cheesy garlic bread, or even cheesy PESTO garlic bread!) Alrighty, let’s tuck into the full recipe for this tomato spinach pasta shall we?!
How to make Tomato Spinach Pasta (Full Recipe & Video)
After more creamy tomato pasta recipes? Check out my Creamy Tomato Sausage Pasta and Penne Alfredo with Bacon and Sun Dried Tomatoes! For more similar recipes check out these beauties:
One Pot Pasta Recipes
One Pot Spicy Rigatoni One Pot Chili Mac One Pot Mac and Cheese One Pot Chicken Fajita Pasta One Pot Creamy Beef Pasta One Pot Sausage Mushroom Pasta
