Garlic Butter and Spinach Pasta

One of the most favorite dishes at our home! Pasta in rich and creamy white sauce topped with sauteed garlic and spinach! My brother in law asked me to make something with pasta and spinach. Initially I had some other idea on my mind but then thought of making it more filling by adding some sauce to it instead of making it in to a salad so that I could serve it as a meal that day. I tried this out and it was an instant hit at our place.

There are three steps in preparing this recipe- Cook pasta, prepare white sauce and then saute Garlic and Spinach. I will be explaining each step individually but you can start boiling water for pasta and simultaneously start preparing the white sauce till the water comes to boil. While pasta is cooking, you can finish preparing the white sauce and start sautéing the spinach. That way you will save lot of time and it will be ready in jiffy! 

Do give it try and also leave a comment and let me know how you like it. 

Ingredients:

Garlic cloves- 16 -18, chopped or sliced

Pasta- 3 1/2 cups

Olive oil- 1 tablespoon

Whole wheat flour- 5 tablespoon

Mozzarella cheese- 3/4 cup

Red Chili flakes- 1 teaspoon (optional)

Black pepper powder- 1 tsp

Salt as per taste

Butter- 5 tablespoons

Milk- 3 cups

Water- 1 and 1/2 cups

Spinach- 2 bunches or 1 medium sized bag

Now, let us first cook pasta-

• Take 12 to 15 cups of water in a large pot and bring it to boil.
• Once the water starts boiling, add 2 teaspoons of salt and 1 tablespoon of olive oil. Give it a stir and then add 3 and 1/2 cups of pasta. I have used Rotini pasta but any type of pasta should work.
• Cook for 10 minutes and check if the pasta is done. It should be cooked but still firm and not very soft and mushy. Drain and keep aside.

Now, let us prepare White sauce-

• Mix 3 ups of water and 1 and 1/2 cup of water and heat it on another burner or in microwave.
• Heat a pan on medium flame. Take 4 tablespoon (out of 5 tablespoon) of butter and add it in the pan and let it melt.
• Once the butter has melted, add 5 tablespoon of whole wheat flour and stir continuously for 4-5 minutes on medium flame. After few minutes, the flour will be slightly pinkish and will give out wonderful aroma. 
• Add hot milk to this little at a time and keep stirring continuously to make sure no lumps are formed.
• After few minutes, the sauce will thicken. Now add 1 teaspoon of black pepper powder, 1 teaspoon of red chili flakes and salt as per your taste and 3/4 cup of mozzarella cheese. Remember, cheese has salt in it so adjust the quantity of salt accordingly.
• Cook for few minutes. Add water or little milk if you think that the sauce is very thick.
• Now add cooked pasta to this sauce and mix it well.

Now let us saute garlic and spinach-

• Heat a big size wide based pan on medium heat. 
• Then add 1 tablespoon of butter which we had saved to this pan and let it melt.
• Add sliced garlic and saute till light brown.
• Add a teaspoon of black pepper powder and salt to taste. Remember that spinach has sodium in it so don't add too much salt. Saute for 2-3 minutes.
• Now add spinach. Depending on size of your pan or skillet, you may need to cook spinach in batches. Else, Cook whatever quantity of spinach that fits in to the pan, stir it for few minutes and once the spinach starts to wilt, there will be space to add more spinach.
• Saute for few minutes till spinach is cooked.
• Now in a plate, take some pasta and top it with sauteed Garlic and spinach. ENJOY!

Tips:

• You can use All purpose flour instead of whole wheat flour. I use whole wheat flour as it is a healthier choice.
• If for some reason you end up having lumps in white sauce, just quickly blend it with hand mixer and bring it to boil. If you are using non-stick pan, remember to remove the sauce in some scratch proof container and then blend.

You can watch the process on our YouTube channels. Please consider subscribing to the channels if you have not already done so. 

For video in English-

For video in Marathi-