Pasta Florentine

Pasta Florentine

I think it’s kind of fun that you can add spinach to a dish and then call it Florentine. Sounds a lot fancier than “Spinach with Pasta.” For dinner with a friend recently I wanted a simple side dish. I had fresh spinach but didn’t want the spinach in a salad this time. I decided to make a spinach and pasta side dish. It turned out really nice. I wanted that creamed spinach feel but without all that dairy. I am lactose intolerant.

The secret? I used chicken stock to make the sauce. I started by sauteing an onion in a skillet in a little oil. I added a couple of cups of low sodium chicken stock and cooked it down by half. Then I tossed in about 8 cups of fresh spinach. I’d washed it and removed larger stems. I also tossed in 4 cups of cooked pasta and stirred it all together. I turned the heat down to medium/low and stirred it every couple of minutes until the spinach was cooked through and the pasta was heated through. Most of the cooking liquid was absorbed into the pasta or had evaporated. I added a little salt and fresh ground pepper and I did serve the dish with fresh grated Romano cheese on the side. It was really good. It tasted rich but not heavy.