Spinach-Pine Nut Pasta

Anyone remember the 5-ingredient dinners that I featured back in November? Well, here's another one for ya! It's creamy and flavorful, start to finish it takes 20 minutes or less to prepare, and you can make it all in one pot. Hooray for less dirty dishes!


The 5 ingredients wanted to pose together for a publicity shot, so I indulged them. Here are the spiral pasta (I used gemelli), spinach, sun dried tomatoes, pine nuts, and the jar of Alfredo sauce that you need to make this recipe.



Cook the pasta according to package directions. In the last few minutes of cooking time, stir in coarsely chopped spinach.



Drain the spinach and pasta.



While the pasta drains, return the empty pot to the stove. Add a half a cup of chopped sun dried tomatoes. Stir in the Alfredo sauce. Heat through.



Return pasta and spinach to the pot. Add in 1/4 cup of pine nuts. Toss to combine with sauce.



Sprinkle with remaining pine nuts and some Parmesan cheese and that's dinner. Super fast and easy...and yummy too!




Spinach Pine-Nut Pasta adapted from Light and Tasty April 2006

Prep/Total Time: 20 min.

Ingredients

1 pkg. uncooked gemelli or spiral pasta
1/2 cup sun-dried tomatoes, chopped
8 ounces coarsely chopped fresh spinach
1 jar prepared Alfredo sauce
1/2 cup pine nuts, divided (I toasted mine in a 200 degree oven until fragrant)

Directions

Cook pasta according to package directions, stirring in the spinach during the last few of cooking time. Drain. While the pasta drains, add sun-dried tomatoes and Alfredo sauce to the cooking pot. Heat through. Add in 1/4 cup pine nuts. Return pasta mixture to the pot. Toss to coat. Sprinkle with remaining pine nuts.

Lighten it up: Use whole wheat pasta, sun-dried tomatoes packed in water instead of oil, and fat free or low fat Alfredo sauce or sauce mix with skim milk.

To download or print this recipe click here!