Sunday 6 June 2010

You Might Know This But You've Never Been This See If I Ate Spinach Then I'd Be Called Spinach D

I have eaten a ridiculous amount of spinach this week. I don't even know who I am anymore.

I had an insatiable spinach craving again today so I decided to play with the garlic spinach recipe to turn it into a meal.


First I boiled the water for my pasta (I used fresh linguine.) Then I made the sauce - I started with a healthy splash of olive oil and a snob of butter in a hot saute pan. I added a red onion and cooked over medium/high heat until transparent. Then I added about 10 cloves of (minced) garlic (what? I really like garlic) and the zest of one lemon. After that cooked for a while, I added 1 can of (rinsed) white kidney beans and a handful of (quartered) cherry tomatoes and let that cook for a while. My water was boiling by this point so I added my noodles. Once they were done, I scooped about 1/3 cup of pasta water into my sauce and then drained my noodles. The pasta water helped me scrape up all the yummy bits that were sticking to the bottom of my pan. Then I piled the spinach on top of the bean mixture, covered the pan, and let everything steam for 2 minutes or so. When the spinach was nice and hot and thoroughly wilted, I added the juice of one lemon and a largish pinch of salt. I mixed in the pasta and let heat through.

I topped mine with finely grated asiago cheese.


So tasty. It wasn't perfect - I think next time I'll add some white wine or chicken stock (maybe half a cup) after the spinach to create more of a sauce - it was pretty dry. I'll probably add some red pepper flakes too for a little heat. And I will probably use the whole box of spinach next time instead of just half the box because it renders down so much. But still - so tasty.

8 comments:

  1. That sounds really good. I tend to eat spinach raw, in salads or on sandwiches, and I happen to have everything you have pictured in my kitchen, so I'll have to try that.

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  2. You're MAKING ME HUNGRY.

    I tried that Spinach recipe yesterday and...it wasn't my favorite. Maybe because I usually LOVE spinach? I don't know.

    That dish there above, however, is worth a shot.

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  3. It looks delish!

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  4. I want to eat that right now! I don't care if it's not yet lunch time!

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  5. Surprisingly, that sounds really yummy. I've never been able to convince my husband to make the switch from lettuce salads to spinach, but maybe this would be a good way to even get it in the house. Plus, we loooooove garlic. (Good thing we found each other, eh?)

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  6. that looks AMAZING. i just bookmarked this because i am 100% making it. maybe with some pine nuts as well? mmmmmm...

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  7. Wow! That is way more effort than I would put into a regular meal. Great job! That looks really tasty!

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  8. I'm not a big fan of spinach (ok, of vegetables in general), but that looks so good... mostly b/c I do love garlic and asiago cheese! Thanks for sharing!

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