We love pasta at my house. We are Italian, though, so it was a foregone conclusion. I am, however, always trying to find ways to get my children to eat more vegetables, so adding them to a pasta dish is an easy way to do this. Two of my children are very picky, but they had no problem digging into a bowl of this delicious Spinach and Ricotta Pasta.
Spinach and Ricotta Pasta
Ingredients
- 1 lb. Farfalle pasta
- 1 1/2 c. part skim milk Ricotta Cheese
- 1/2 c. Parmesan cheese, grated
- 1/2 c. Pecorino Romano cheese, grated
- 2 garlic cloves, crushed
- 1/2 yellow onion, diced
- 5 big handfuls of baby spinach, chopped
- 3 tbsp. sun-dried tomatoes, chopped
- 1/2 can of baby artichokes in water, chopped
- Zest of 1 lemon
- 1-2 tbsp. of olive oil
*As always, my measurements are more like approximations, so adjust to suit your own tastes.
Directions
- Assemble your ingredients – I like to do this on my large cutting board, but a clean countertop would work just fine. If you haven’t already, wash the baby spinach and the lemon.
- Bring your pasta water to a boil, salt the water, and add the pasta. Farfalle will take roughly 10 minutes to reach al dente, and that should be plenty of time to make your sauce. Make sure to reserve 1 to 2 cups of the pasta water to thin the sauce.
- Preheat your pan to medium heat. I use a risotto pan, but you could certainly use any large pot – you want one big enough to toss the pasta and the sauce together, but still shallow enough to saute, not steam your ingredients.
- Dice and chop the onion, baby spinach, artichokes (make sure you drain off the water before dumping them on your cutting board) and sun-dried tomatoes. Crush two gloves of garlic, and remove the peel.
- Add a couple of tablespoons of olive oil to your pan (just enough to coat the bottom; we aren’t frying anything here). Once the oil is hot, add in your onions and garlic gloves, season with salt and pepper, and saute for about 5 minutes until the onions are beginning to look translucent. Remove the garlic at this stage (this is a personal choice, I feel the garlic taste overpowers everything in this dish, especially since the sauce really isn’t cooked very long, but you could certainly mince it and leave it in or use garlic powder instead).
- Add your sun-dried tomatoes and artichokes to the onions and stir.
- Once the pasta is cooked to al dente, add it to the sauce pan. I use a large slotted spoon to transfer the pasta directly into the pan, rather than drain it and then add it – this way you get a little bit of pasta water in the sauce, which is needed to help thin out the thick ricotta.
- Add in the spinach (it wilts immediately, no need to cook it longer) and the ricotta and stir to combine. At this point, you might want to add more pasta water in 1/4 cup increments until your sauce reaches the desired consistency.
- Grate the Parmesan and Pecorino cheeses directly over the pan and then zest the lemon over the pan. Stir to combine.
- Serve and enjoy!
This should serve a family of 4 – 6, but if you would like to stretch it further, consider adding in some cooked chicken, Italian sausage, or cannellini beans.
This looks delicious and I happen to have a bag of frozen artichoke hearts in the freezer. My kids do not like artichoke hearts unless I add them to a dip or some kind of cheesy pasta.
Thank you – and my kids are the same – pasta is a great way to get them to try new foods. Enjoy!