Pasta with Spinach and Artichokes over Tomato Cream Sauce

Today I have another delicious meatless meal for you. We try to eat meatless meals once or twice a week, and some of them are my family’s favorites. This particular meal is one of my husband’s favorite dinners – he even requested I make it for his birthday!

I recently started making this with the fresh pasta from Whole Foods, but you can make it with any pasta (and any shape!). It’s also good over tortellini.

The original recipe for the tomato cream sauce is from The Pioneer Woman. She has a very in depth tutorial on how to make it, so I won’t go into too much detail here. I do as she does and cook down tomato sauce, but if you’re in a crunch for time, you can skip that part and just use pre-made marinara.

You will need:

• 1 medium onion, diced
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 Tbsp olive oil
• 2 Tbsp butter
• 2 15 oz cans tomato sauce
• 1 cup heavy cream
• Sugar, salt, and pepper
• Fresh basil (optional)
• 1 cup Parmesan cheese
• 5-6 cups fresh spinach, chopped (if using baby spinach, you may not need to chop it if the leaves are small)
• 1 or 2 cans artichoke hearts, chopped
• Pasta of your choice (Note: the recipe makes nearly 8 cups of sauce, and I don’t make the full amount of pasta for it at once. I save a few cups of the sauce for another meal later in the week. If you only want to eat half the sauce at a time, I recommend cooking 1/2-1/2 a box of pasta.)

Step 1: Prepare your salted pasta water and cook pasta according to package directions. If using fresh pasta, you won’t be cooking it until the very end. Reserve a cup of pasta water.

Step 2: Heat your oil and butter in a large sauce pan. Saute your onions and garlic. (I saute the onions for 2-3 minutes and then add the garlic and saute for one additional minute.)

Step 3: Add tomato sauce. Stir and bring to almost a boil, then simmer for 25 minutes. I added some purple basil from my patio herb garden while it simmered.

Step 4: While the sauce is simmering, cook your spinach and artichokes. In a skillet heat a tbsp butter or olive oil, then add your spinach. You may need to let some cook down before fitting the rest into the pan.

Once the spinach has wilted, add the artichokes. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Step 5: When the sauce is done simmering, season with salt and pepper to taste. Add a dash of sugar to taste. Add the heavy cream and stir. Your sauce will now be a creamy orangey red.

Step 6: Your pasta should be done at this point. If using fresh pasta, put that in your boiling water now and cook it for three minutes. Time to finish the sauce. Add 1 cup Parmesan cheese to taste. Check seasonings. If the sauce has over-reduced, add some of the reserved pasta water to thin it.

Step 7: Plate your pasta, add your sauce, and top with the spinach and artichokes. Voila!

Top with fresh grated Parmesan and enjoy.