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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.

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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

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