Creamy Tomato and Spinach Pasta

Description

This recipe for a Creamy Spinach and Tomato pasta is an easy and flavor packed meal that is loaded with veggies.  What makes this dish even better is that it is all made in one pot.  Instead of piling all of the ingredients into a pot and letting it boil, I start this off by melting some butter and sauteing garlic and red pepper flakes to allow their flavors to bloom.  Once that step is completed, it’s time to add your pasta and liquids and let the stove do the work for you.  Once your pasta is cooked, you can add your vegetables and let them cook down followed by adding a healthy amount of parmesan and a little bit of cream to bring your pasta together.  The best part of a one pot pasta dish is that you can make it delicious and creamy without adding too much fat to the dish.  By allowing the pasta to cook in its own sauce, the starches will thicken the sauce to give it a luxurious and creamy texture.  I like to use a long pasta like spaghetti for this dish because it mixes so well with the wilted spinach and burst tomatoes, plus spinning a huge pile of noodles on your fork is always fun!  For the vegetables, I prefer to cook my tomatoes to where they are just bursting and beginning to soften to achieve a brighter flavor, however if you prefer a longer cook on your vegetables, you can add them halfway through cooking the pasta, any longer may end up giving you a waxy tomato skin and slimy spinach, yuck!.  I like to serve this dish as a side with just about any protein, but it can also stand on its own for a hearty and delicious main dish.  This pasta makes a frequent appearance on my weekly dinner rotation because of how easy it is to make.  I love to start this pasta off on the stove and continue on to grill some chicken or fish while my pasta is cooking, it’s like a dish that does half the work for you!  However you choose to serve it, this recipe for Creamy Tomato and Spinach Pasta is a true winner.  Speaking of being a winner, did you know about that time I almost won a Publishers Clearinghouse Sweepstakes? It was a picture perfect spring afternoon, and I had just finished up preparing my garden for the spring.  It was almost time for dinner, so I headed indoors and began to wash up when I heard the doorbell ring.  Hoping my kids or husband would answer, I kept on my own business of my clean up routine.  That's when the doorbell rang yet again, but with much more gusto than before.  I resigned to opening the door and was met with a wall of colorful balloons, streamers, and a huge round of applause.  If you could have only seen the absolute confusion on my face!  Once the shock and awe wore off, I was able to try to figure out what was happening on my front porch.  That was when a D list celebrity emerged from the crowd in tow with an oversized check with my neighbors name on it informing me that I had won the sweepstakes.  I didn’t want to be the bearer of bad news, but I had to let them know that they had the wrong person.  Just like that, the excitement was over and the celebration had moved itself a couple houses down the road to the real winner's house. Now that my unexpected visitors had moved on, it was time to get started on a nice and easy dinner of Creamy Spinach and Tomato Pasta.