Cheap & Elegant Pasta
A quick penne pasta meal which can easily be customized. This can be used as a side-dish or your main course alongside a salad & garlic bread.
Servings: 4
Ingredients
- 2 1/2 cup penne pasta, dry
- 4 Tbsp olive oil
- 4 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 1/2 Tbsp basil, dried
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 15oz can diced tomatoes, undrained
- 2 handfuls spinach, torn
- 2 - 4 oz feta, crumbled
Instructions
- Cook & drain pasta.
- Saute garlic in olive oil.
- Add basil, salt, & tomatoes.
- Simmer 5-10 minutes to allow flavor to cook through.
- Add torn spinach & cook another minute.
- Stir-in drained pasta. Adding a little more olive oil if pasta is sticking to itself.
- Add 1/2 of feta and allow it to slightly melt.
- Spoon onto servings dishes & sprinkle with remaining feta.
Notes
We typically use 1/2 a box of Penne which is usually about 2.5 - 2.75 cups dry pasta.
If you have a large enough skillet, you can boil your pasta in the same pan first. Then return to burner and continue with recipe.
Mozzarella, Parmesan or a combination of these, can be used instead of feta cheese.
Use can use fresh garden veggies, fire-roasted tomatoes, or sun-dried tomatoes to boost the flavor of this.
Feel free to experiment with what you have on hand (sausage, olives, etc.).
I do tend to add more olive oil to coat the drained pasta. Not too much since you want the veggies to stick to the pasta. Drizzle the oil just enough to prevent one huge lump-o-pasta in the pan.