What Can I Make With Pasta and Spinach?
Pasta and spinach is a fast, light, meatless dinner, and the top match is Garlic Butter Pasta with Spinach at 520 calories. CookSnap matched real, tested recipes to just pasta and spinach — from creamy green tallarines to minestrone — so every option is a dish people have actually cooked.
Top recipeGarlic Butter Pasta with Spinach
Five-ingredient pasta that tastes like restaurant cooking. Hot pasta tossed with melted garlic butter and wilted spinach, finished with lemon and Parmesan.
Ingredients
- •spaghetti or linguine
- •butter
- •garlic, minced
- •fresh spinach, loosely packed
- •Parmesan cheese, grated
Steps
- 1Boil salted water in a large pot. Add pasta and cook until al dente, ~9 minutes.
- 2While pasta cooks, melt butter in a large skillet over medium heat, ~1 minute.
- 3Add minced garlic and cook until fragrant, ~45 seconds. Do not brown.
- 4Reserve 0.5 cup pasta water, then drain pasta. Set aside.
- 5Add spinach to the skillet with garlic butter and stir until wilted, ~60 seconds.
- 6Add hot pasta to the skillet and toss to coat. Pour in reserved pasta water gradually.
- 7Stir in half the Parmesan until the sauce is silky. Top with remaining Parmesan.
- 8Serve immediately with cracked black pepper and lemon wedges.
Why this works
Pasta and spinach is the move when you want something quick, green and meatless without much in the fridge. Spinach wilts into hot pasta in under a minute, adding color, iron and freshness, while the pasta and a little fat carry whatever flavor you build. It is the base of countless 15-minute dinners. The simplest version is garlic-butter or olive-oil pasta with a big handful of spinach folded through at the end and parmesan on top. From there you can go creamy with a blended green spinach sauce, brothy with minestrone or minestra, or bright with basil and lemon. Save a little starchy pasta water to loosen the sauce and help it cling. CookSnap matches the pasta and spinach you have against a curated library and lists the few extras each recipe needs.
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Open the recipe finder →Frequently asked
What is the quickest pasta and spinach dish?
Garlic butter pasta with spinach is fastest — sauté garlic in butter or oil, toss in cooked pasta and a handful of spinach until it wilts, and finish with parmesan and a splash of pasta water. About 15 minutes.
Fresh or frozen spinach for pasta?
Fresh wilts in seconds and is best stirred in at the end; frozen should be thawed and squeezed dry first, then warmed through. Use about a third as much frozen by volume.
How do I make pasta and spinach creamy?
Blend cooked spinach with a little cream, pasta water and parmesan for a green sauce, or stir in cream cheese off the heat. CookSnap''s matches include creamy green pasta versions.
How do I add protein to pasta and spinach?
Add chicken, shrimp, white beans or extra cheese. CookSnap shows which additions each recipe uses and how many you already have.
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