< jpreston.xyz

Cream Spinach Pasta

Index date:

Last modified:

My partner came up with this recipe for a rich pasta sauce incorporating minced spinach.

  • ~12oz fresh spinach
  • 2-3 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1/2 - 2/3 cup cream1
  • pasta, prepared while cooking sauce – I like long pasta like tagliatelle or linguine for this dish.

Wilt down whole spinach in pan. Once spinach is sufficiently wilted down into a dense mass, transfer to a chopping board and mince finely. Return to pan on low heat, add garlic and cream. Incorporate the cream into the spinach to create a rich sauce. Cook on low heat – barely simmering – for a few minutes2. Add to pasta, mix to coat, and serve.

  1. I use half of a 300ml tub, common in UK supermarkets, and that lets me make two portions of sauce, good to serve 2-3 people. ↩

  2. The second or third time I made this, I left the sauce simmering for about 10-20 minutes, and when I came back I had evaporated all of the water out of the cream. The contents of the pan looked as if I had used 1/4 - 1/2 cup of straight oil to cook the spinach in.

    I managed to save the sauce by mixing in hot water from the kettle. Perhaps it is the increased surface area created by the minced spinach, but upon addition of water the sauce immediately forms an opaque white emulsion, and after mixing in enough water I was able to re-hydrate the sauce without much change in flavour, consistency, mouthfeel or appearance. Hopefully this points to a way to create a vegan version of this sauce, using olive oil and then emulsifying with perhaps pasta water and/or stock? ↩