Ever since I discovered how delicious pasta is when cooked in broth instead of water, I’ve been experimenting with all sorts of different ways to play up this simple trick. By simply changing up the add-ins, you can have an endless number of quick one pot or one skillet dinners for busy week nights. This Bacon and Spinach Pasta with Parmesan is my latest quick skillet obsession.
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Bacon, spinach, and Parmesan are not exactly the least expensive ingredients on the planet, so you do have to be a bit careful with this one. I used a half package of bacon and froze the rest for later use. To save on spinach, I skipped the salad sized bags and got a jumbo bag of “cooking spinach”. The big one pound bag was only 20 cents more expensive than the smaller salad sized (9oz.) bags and almost twice as big. I’ll enjoy the extra spinach as salads and freeze some in smoothie packs.
Can I Use Frozen Spinach or Other Greens?
Frozen spinach can be used in a pinch, but make sure not to get “chopped” frozen spinach because it will be in a million tiny little pieces. You can use other greens, like collards, mustard, or kale, but because they’re quite a bit more sturdy, they’ll need to be sautéed down with the onion in the beginning. Parmesan really does top off this dish and make it grand, but you can lighten up on it if you’re strapped for cash. Parmesan is very flavorful, so a little goes a long way.
What Else Can I Add?
If you want to beef up this dish a bit, you can add a rinsed and drained can of white beans, or sauté some mushrooms with the onions. A few red pepper flakes would be nice in here, too, although I like red pepper flakes on just about anything!
Bacon and Spinach Pasta with Parmesan
Servings 4Ingredients
- 6 oz. bacon ($2.15)
- 1 yellow onion ($0.25)
- 2 cups chicken broth ($0.28)
- 1/2 lb. pasta ($0.50)
- 1/4 lb. fresh spinach (about 4 cups) ($1.50)
- 1/3 cup grated Parmesan ($0.55)
Instructions
- Cut the bacon across the strips into one-inch pieces. Sauté the bacon in a large skillet until it is brown and crispy (no extra fat needed). Remove the browned bacon to a bowl with a slotted spoon. Carefully pour the fat off into a separate bowl, leaving about one tablespoon in the skillet.
- While the bacon cooks, dice the onion. Once the bacon is removed and the fat is drained from the skillet, add the diced onions and sauté until they are soft and transparent. Allow the moisture from the onions to dissolve some of the browned bits off of the bottom of the skillet.
- Add two cups of chicken broth to the skillet and dissolve off any remaining browned bits of bacon drippings from the bottom of the skillet.
- Finally, add the uncooked pasta to the skillet, place a lid on top, and let the skillet come to a boil over high heat. Once it reaches a boil, give it a quick stir, turn the heat down to low, and let simmer for 10 minutes with the lid in place. Give the skillet a stir to loosen the pasta from the bottom every few minutes or so, replacing the lid quickly each time. After 10 minutes the pasta should be tender and most of the broth absorbed. There should be a little bit of thick, saucy broth remaining in the bottom of the skillet.
- Add the fresh spinach to the skillet and stir until it has wilted into the pasta. Turn off the heat, add the cooked bacon back to the skillet, sprinkle the Parmesan over top, stir to combine, and then serve.
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How to Make Bacon and Spinach Pasta – Step by Step Photos
Cut 6 oz. (1/2 of a 12oz. package) of bacon into one-inch strips. The second half will be frozen and used later. I love adding a little bacon to soups and other dishes because it adds a LOT of flavor. Or who knows, maybe I’ll just use the leftovers for an impromptu weekend brunch.
Sauté the bacon in a large skillet over medium heat until it’s brown and crispy. I didn’t add any extra oil to the skillet because the bacon is fatty enough that it releases quite a bit of grease and does not stick. Once the bacon is crispy, remove it to a bowl with a slotted spoon, and pour off the fat into a separate container, leaving about 1 tablespoon of fat in the skillet (for flavor, of course!). When the poured off fat is cool, save it in the refrigerator to add flavor to other dishes, or if you’re not the bacon grease type of person, scoop it into the garbage. Just DO NOT rinse it down your drain.
While the bacon is cooking, dice one small onion. Add the onion to the skillet and sauté until it is soft and transparent. The juices from the onion will begin to dissolve the browned bacon bits from the bottom of the skillet.
Add two cups of chicken broth to the skillet. Stir well to dissolve the last of the browned bits from the bottom of the skillet.
Add the dry pasta to the skillet and place a lid on top (it’s OKAY if the broth doesn’t completely cover the pasta). Turn the heat up to high and let the skillet come to a boil. As soon as it reaches a boil, give it a quick stir, turn the heat down to low and let it simmer for 10 minutes. Every few minutes, give the skillet a quick stir to loosen the pasta from the bottom and replace the lid quickly each time so that the broth continues to simmer. Make sure the broth continues to simmer the entire time, turning the heat up just slightly if needed to maintain a simmer.
After about 15 minutes, the pasta should be tender and most of the broth absorbed. There should be a bit of saucy broth left in the bottom of the skillet.
Once the pasta is cooked, add about 1/4 pound (or 3-4 cups) of fresh spinach to the skillet. Add a handful of the spinach at a time and stir it into the pasta until it wilts.
Turn the heat off, add the cooked bacon back to the skillet, and sprinkle the Parmesan over top. Give it a quick stir to combine and then serve!
And then it will look like this! Like I said, I probably should have sprinkled a little red pepper or even freshly cracked black pepper over the top just to take it up a notch, but honestly, it’s bacon… I was already dazzled!
BACON.
Thanks for a great recipe. Made this for the family tonight since I had a giant bag of spinach to use up. Didn’t have any bacon so I used some diced ham left over from the holidays and some prosciutto torn into pieces.
Added a sprinkle of red pepper flakes but otherwise followed the recipe exactly. There was still a good bit of broth so I added a dollop of sour cream and stirred it in with the Parmesan. OMG – there wasn’t a drop left it was so delicious!
Made this for dinner tonight~! YUM! Will be making this one again and again. :) Thanks for sharing! Happy New Year!
I just did this for my son!! My my it tastes awesome:) thanks so much
You are such a blessing. So grateful for you. Been looking for help in the kitchen. I eat out way to much and its taken a toll on the budget. God bless you.
Tiffany Lynette
My brother pointed your blog out to me when we were talking about cheap eats over Thanksgiving. Tried this one out tonight and holy moly it is great! Thanks so much and I’m looking forward to cooking some more :)
I made this and it was delicious!!!! Thanks for this recipe it will be a company dish in our house! I can’t wait to try another recipe from you. xooxox
I really didn’t have high expectations for this recipe, it seemed way too simple, but I didn’t feel like battling rush hour traffic to go to the supermarket and I had all the ingredients on hand…well, frozen spinach at least. This was so delicious, I could not believe it! I did add a pinch of crushed red pepper when I added the frozen spinach and some fresh cracked pepper with the parmesan. I was battling with myself this morning over whether to take this or one of my leftover servings of Chorizo Sweet Potato Skillet.
I want to make this with double the amount of pasta called for in your recipe, 16 oz. Should I double the rest of the ingredients? I”m not sure if I would end up with too much liquid at the end?
I woul double everything, yes, but you might have trouble finding a lidded skillet that will hold that much. It might work in a wide pot.
Made this this evening with a few modifications. I put in maybe 1/4 of the called for bacon and when I added the diced onion I also added a few handfuls of pretty tightly diced white mushroom. I added a diced salad tomato just before the spinach, and ended up having to use about a 1/4 hunk of frozen spinach instead of fresh (I would have added more but it just was such little pieces already…).
The red pepper flakes are NECESSARY and I would probably add garlic and pepper to the onion/bacon mixture before adding the pasta next time. That said, I sat down to eat my dinner, and after 10 minutes of eating I realized I had to stop and put a portion into a tupperware for lunch tomorrow otherwise I’d eat it all right there. DELICIOUS.
If we want to add the can of white beans you mentioned, at what point in the recipe should we do that?
I would add them with the pasta and broth before simmering. Also, I would rinse and drain them first.
I just made this with a few adjustments:
Some of my pasta was not cooked at the end even though the broth was absorbed, so I just added about another cup of water and let it cook for a few more minutes.
I didn’t cook the pasta with the bacon, I added it in at the end.
I used frozen spinach instead of fresh. I used about a cup? I didn’t really measure.
It was so delicious that I totally forgot to add the red pepper flakes at the end. Thanks for another great recipe!
This one was great! Only change I made was using turkey bacon since I don’t eat pork. I added it just before the parm cheese since it doesn’t crisp the same as regular bacon and would get rubbery if I cooked it with the pasta. Totally delisious. Beth your blog is such a god send. If you never find “the cure” in your lab at least you’ve touched the world with your food.
This was so easy to make and so flavorful despite only a handful of ingredients. I can tell this is a recipe I’ll be making a lot. It’s the kind of carby comfort food I crave when the weather gets cold.
Hi Beth,
My girlfriend and I tried this recipe last night, the pasta was delicious, but the bacon came out a bit soggy which threw us off a bit. How is the bacon supposed to come out in this dish? Any tips for improving?
Mine was still fairly firm, although not exactly crunchy. Another method you can try is to take the bacon out after cooking and then just add it back in at the end. The leftover bacon grease should still provide a lot of flavor to the pasta even if the bacon pieces aren’t in there while the pasta cooks. :)
Thanks, we are going to try that on our next attempt! :)
I tried this last night and it was amazing – such a simple dish with incredibly complex flavors. Did take the tip about adding a dash of pepper flakes (ok, three dashes) and kicked in a touch of garlic – because garlic is good nearly everywhere – and my husband asked for seconds and a repeat on the recipe. Thanks for a change from his meat-and-potatoes blinders.