Truly a less than 30-minute meal - this green pea and spinach pasta will be on the table in about as long as it takes to boil the water and cook the noodles. Considering that the sauce is full of good for you veggies - this is one you will want to keep in your regular dinner rotations.
Cook Time20 minutesmins
Total Time20 minutesmins
Course: Main dish
Cuisine: Vegetarian
Keyword: feta cheese, green peas, pesto, spinach
Servings: 4servings
Calories: 614kcal
Author: Trish | The infinebalance Food Blog
Ingredients
1-½cupsvegetable stock or water with a bouillon cube added and disolved
2-½cupsfrozen green peas
2cupsfresh spinachloosely packed
1tablespoonolive oil
2tablespoonspesto
454gdried fusilli pasta
1cupof crumbled fetadivided
juice from half a lemon
½teaspooneach salt and pepper
lemon wedgesfor serving
Instructions
Bring a large pot of water to boil for the pasta. Season generously with salt. Cook pasta according to package directions. Reserve ½ cup of pasta water. Drain the pasta.
Meanwhile, in a medium-sized pot add peas, stock (or water and bouillon cube) and bring to a simmer over medium heat. Just as the peas come to a simmer add the spinach. Cook until the spinach wilts, another minute. Remove from the heat.
Pour the pea and spinach mixture into the jar of a blender, it may be necessary to do this in batches depending on the size of your blender. Add the pesto, juice from half of the lemon, salt, pepper and olive oil. Vent the blender lid and cover with a kitchen towel to allow steam to escape. Blend until smooth and creamy. Taste for seasoning, add more salt if necessary.
Return the drained pasta to the pasta cooking pot (it is now empty!), pour over sauce plus ¾ feta cheese and toss well. The sauce will begin to thicken. Add some pasta water, a tablespoon at a time, only if the sauce is too thick. Serve with the remaining feta cheese and lemon wedges.
Notes
recipe adapted from Fine Cooking magazineThis recipe can be made in about 20 minutes, the sauce comes together while the pasta comes to a boil and cooks.Try with only peas if you don't have any spinach.Pesto adds a nice basil flavour that I think really makes this pasta come together. A small handful of fresh basil leaves works too. Get in the habit of saving a bit of the pasta water before you drain your pasta. It adds salt and starch to your finished dish and helps create that silky sauce.