Creamy Tomato & Spinach Pasta is Flavorful, Easy and Budget-Friendly

Photo bySide Chef

This creamy tomato and spinach pasta dish comes together in about 20 minutes and is easy to make, not to mention budget friendly. Just boil the pasta of your choice as you prepare the sauce in a separate pan. While the recipe is carb heavy (pasta is my weakness) it's full of healthy Mediterranean ingredients: tomatoes, olive oil, garlic, baby spinach, onions, Parmesan cheese and a smattering of dried herbs.

In place of heavy cream, this recipe uses a couple ounces of cream cheese to make the sauce rich and silky. I prefer that because I usually have at least one block of cream cheese in my refrigerator and it's cheaper than heavy cream. The last time I made this recipe, I picked up a box of penne for 98 cents, 10 ounces of baby spinach for $1.98 and a 15-ounce can of store-brand diced tomatoes for less than a dollar. The store-brand tomato paste was only 86 cents and a block of cream cheese was $1.86 (plus there were 6 ounces left over). I already had the dried herbs, onion, Parmesan cheese and olive oil in my pantry. Total cost for the amount of each ingredient used: about five dollars.

The other thing I like about this recipe is how versatile it is. Use rigatoni, fettucine or Ziti in place of the penne and change up the oregano and basil for rosemary and thyme. For a warmer sauce, you can experiment with cinnamon, cumin and nutmeg. Or add some sliced chicken if you don't want a meatless meal. On the flip side, to make this recipe vegan substitute cashew cream for the cream cheese and skip the Parmesan.

Creamy Tomato & Spinach Pasta

Ingredients

8 ounces (1/2 pound) penne pasta

1 yellow onion, diced

2 cloves garlic, chopped

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 15-ounce can diced tomatoes

1/2 teaspoon dried oregano

1/2 teaspoon dried basil

1 pinch crushed red pepper

1/2 teaspoon salt

Cracked black pepper to taste

2 tablespoons tomato paste

2 ounces cream cheese

1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese

4 ounces fresh baby spinach

Instructions

1. Prepare pasta as directed on the back of the box. Drain and set aside, saving about 1/2-1 cup of pasta water.

2. Add the onion, garlic, and olive oil to a large skillet and sauté over medium heat until the onions are soft and translucent, about 3-5 minutes.

3. Add the diced tomatoes with juice, oregano, basil, crushed red pepper, salt and pepper to the skillet. Stir in the tomato paste and 1/2 cup of the pasta water.

4. Reduce the heat to low. Stir in a few cut-up pieces of the cream cheese into the sauce and cook until the mixture is smooth and creamy. Add the Parmesan and stir until it's combined with the sauce.

5. Add the spinach and gently fold it into the sauce until it wilts. Add the pasta and mix into the sauce until it's fully coated.

6. Serve warm and add more Parmesan cheese, if desired.

Notes

As a rule of thumb, 1 ounce equals about 1 cup of fresh spinach, loosely packed. The bag I recently bought was 10 ounces, so I used a little less than half. The spinach will look like a lot when you first add it but it will reduce significantly as it wilts.

You can make this with 1/2 cup regular water in place of the pasta water. I always use pasta water because it will thicken the sauce nicely. I generally reserve about a cup in case I need more to blend the pasta with the sauce.

If you don't have cream cheese on hand, you can substitute a couple of ounces of heavy cream instead.