Skip to main content

Pasta with Spinach & Pine Nuts

Am getting ready for the "Fit & Fabulous Friday", so this is yet another healthy Pasta dish coming up. I love all kinds and shapes of Pasta. I also do love stocking up different pastas in my so called Pantry (cupboard). When I get bored, I go to the pasta cupboard and run my hands through it thinking which shape should I use for today's dinner? ;) (yeah, the pasta obsessed me!!)
I made this dish in the morning for Arun's Lunchbox menu to take it to his office. This recipe is inspired by Nigella Lawson's "Curly Pasta with Feta, Spinach & Pine Nuts". Instead of the curly pasta, I have used "Dischi Volanti" & I have avoided the Feta cheese as well as the "allspice" seasoning. Why? for the simple reason that I didn't have those. :) I loved this dish & and am sure you too will like it as the Spinach does make the difference here. So here goes the recipe:

Ingredients:
  • 250 g dischi volanti pasta (or any kind /shape of pasta)
  • 250 g fresh / frozen spinach (if frozen, thaw it before using it. If fresh, roughly chop it)
  • 1 medium onion (finely chopped)
  • 50 g pine nuts (can use toasted almonds)
  • 2-3 cloves of garlic (finely chopped)
  • 2 tbsp of olive oil
  • 1 tbsp grated parmesan cheese
  • salt & pepper to season
Method:
  1. Cook the pasta as per the packet instructions. Add salt & a bit of oil in the boiling water while cooking pasta. Before straining, keep aside half cup of pasta water aside for future use. Strain & keep the pasta aside.
  2. Toast the pine nuts for 3-4 minutes or until they become golden, in a hot dry frying pan. Keep aside.
  3. Heat a pan & pour the 1 tbsp of olive oil & put the chopped garlic to it. You can also use garlic infused oil instead of putting garlic & oil separately.
  4. Add the chopped onion to it & saute well until it becomes light brown. Now add the chopped spinach to it. Season it with some salt & a generous seasoning of pepper (we are using pepper instead of Nigella's allspice). Also add the previously kept pasta water to it. Cook well. It will take 4-5 minutes for the spinach to cook.
  5. If you think that the spinach has cooked, add in the cooked pasta & mix well. Switch off the heat. Add in the toasted pine nuts, drizzle the remaining olive oil & mix in the parmesan cheese. If you want, add some more salt & pepper.

Linking this recipe to ameessavourydish.blogspot.com where she is hosting a link party "Fit & Fabulous Fridays".


I have also linked this page to an ongoing event "Healthy Snacks" hosted by http://deepthidigvijay.blogspot.com.

Labels:

Comments

  1. Vimitha Durai14 July 2011 at 18:43

    Healthy and nutritious pasta... Looks so yum

    ReplyDelete
  2. Deepthi KR14 July 2011 at 21:00

    wow can you send it to the event going by my blog?

    Food Blog News
    Event-Healthy Snacks

    ReplyDelete
  3. Sravs14 July 2011 at 21:05

    Nice and healthy pasta !!

    Ongoing Event - CC-Roti Pachadi/Chutney

    ReplyDelete
  4. Vardhini14 July 2011 at 22:10

    Healthy .. love the crunch of the pine nuts.

    Vardhini
    Event: Fast food not Fat food

    ReplyDelete
  5. aipi14 July 2011 at 23:07

    It is always fun to discover new fun pasta shape ~ never seen this around here. The dish sounds delicious!
    US Masala

    ReplyDelete
  6. Unknown15 July 2011 at 14:52

    healthy and very nice recipe...

    ReplyDelete
  7. Deepthi KR15 July 2011 at 18:10

    hello dear, thnx for the yummy entry!
    I just changed the name you can check now!

    Food Blog News
    Event-Healthy Snacks

    ReplyDelete
  8. Sobha Shyam15 July 2011 at 20:27

    the pasta looks so cute, wonderful dish and looks very tasty..

    ReplyDelete
  9. Diana @ VeggieNextDoor16 July 2011 at 00:53

    mmm... I love pine nuts! I have also never seen that shape of pasta - very cool!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

3 Ingredients / 3 Minute Microwave PEDAS

It's Celebration time all the way!! Why? Because My FB fan page has just reached 150 "Likes" & am so thrilled. Also, the festivities will start from August in India. First coming up is "Raksha Bandhan", the festival which celebrates the relationship & bond of a Brother & Sister. So I thought of coming up with an easy to make Indian Sweet Dish, "Peda". A "Peda" is a North Indian Milk Sweet mainly consisting of Khoa (thickened whole milk), sugar & other Indian flavourings like saffron & cardamom seeds. Pedas are usually made during festivities or for offerings made in the temple for deities. This recipe is a simple process of the same "time consuming" Pedas where the Milk is kept on the heat for hours to make khoa & then goes to the next process. This is the first time for me as well & I have taken this recipe from "showmethecurry.com" the cookery website of Hetal & Anuja. And I must say...
6 comments
Read more

Hundred Thousand Dollar worth Rava Upma (Indian Semolina Polenta)

Now you must be thinking, who doesn't know to make Rava Upma? What is so special about it? Every 5th person residing in India knows to make it and is a common breakfast item in almost all the Indian household. We Indians take this dish for granted. Well up until a week back, even I thought the same about this dish and looked down on Rava Upma. Not anymore. Last week I read a news about an Indian born, New York Chef Floyd Cardoz who won the top prize of £100,000 in an American show called "Top Chef Masters". No prize for guessing, he made RAVA UPMA!! After reading the article, I immediately decided that the recipe of a basic version of Upma must be on my blog. And here I am sharing the if not a "million dollar", then atleast a "hundred thousand dollar worth Upma Recipe". :) Upma is a popular South Indian Breakfast dish, mainly prepared by Semolina. It has a great resemblance with the Italian Polenta. It can be made with many variations by adding vegeta...
13 comments
Read more

Paneer Couscous Salad

Last two weeks were so hectic for me that I didn't find time to even open my blog page. Lots of friends coming home, cooking, eating junk, visiting places, our famous festival "Vishu" came up  & finally I ended up getting sick. I am still in bed but was so frustrated doing nothing that I thought let me post one of my healthy salad recipes which I had promised earlier. I saw this salad recipe in one of the BBC cookery shows & was quiet eager to make it. The original recipe suggests the use of Halloumi instead of Paneer. Halloumi is a type of Greek cheese made of mostly Goat's milk. It has the same texture of that as Paneer, hence I used Paneer. Must say, It was quite filling and delicious, perfect for a Summer afternoon. Ingredients: 200 gm couscous 200 ml hot vegetable stock / hot chicken stock 400 g can chickpeas (drained and rinsed) 1 tbsp olive oil 1/2 courgette/zucchini (sliced) 200 gm paneer (Indian Cottage Cheese), cut 1 inch length wise 2 medi...
6 comments
Read more