Last weekend I got an email from Robyn with a link to this really cool recipe over at Apron Strings. I love cooking pasta and rice in liquids other than water, so this idea for a one pot pasta dish (which is originally from Martha Stewart Living Magazine) was right up my alley!
This dish is incredibly easy and super flavorful. The pasta cooks in a mixture of broth, herbs, and aromatics, like onion and garlic, which really ramp up the flavor. The starch that dissolves off of the pasta as it cooks helps create a thick sauce right in the pot. It’s magic! So fast, so easy, and SO flavorful. I do want to mention, though, that if you’re the type of person that can’t handle pasta any other way than al dente, you may not like this one. The pasta can get a little soft, if you let it cook even just a little too long.
I made a few changes to the original recipe, as usual, to fit my needs. First, instead of using fresh basil, which can cost an arm and a leg, I used frozen spinach for a pop of green and increased the dried basil to make up for the flavor. Second, I wanted more “stuff” in my pasta, so I used a larger can of diced tomatoes and reduced the amount of vegetable broth to compensate. Lastly, I added a light sprinkle of shaved Parmesan over top. Other great ideas for add-ins: mushrooms, parmesan, artichoke hearts, or olives.
I think next time I’ll save adding the frozen spinach until the end so that it will defrost and heat quickly from the pasta’s residual heat. That way the spinach will stay bright green and pretty, and it will not darken the pasta as it cooks. But hey, either way it tasted fantastic!
Tomato Spinach One Pot Pasta
Servings 6Ingredients
- 4 cups vegetable broth ($0.52)
- 2 Tbsp olive oil ($0.22)
- 12 oz. fettuccine ($0.75)
- 8 oz. frozen chopped spinach ($0.72)
- 1 28oz. can diced tomatoes ($1.68)
- 1 yellow onion, sliced ($0.42)
- 4 cloves garlic, sliced ($0.32)
- 1/2 Tbsp dried basil ($0.15)
- 1/2 Tbsp dried oregano ($0.15)
- 1/4 tsp crushed red pepper ($0.03)
- freshly cracked black pepper to taste ($0.05)
- 2 oz. shaved Parmesan ($1.25)
Instructions
- Add four cups of vegetable broth to a large pot. Break the fettuccine in half and add it to the pot along with the canned tomatoes (with juices), olive oil, frozen spinach, onion, garlic, basil, oregano, red pepper, and some freshly cracked black pepper.
- Make sure the ingredients are submerged under the liquid, place a lid on top of the pot, and then turn the heat on to high. Allow the pot to come up to a full boil over high heat, then remove the lid and turn the heat down to medium.
- Allow the pot to continue to boil over medium heat, without a lid, for 10-15 minutes, or until the pasta is cooked and most of the liquid has been absorbed. Stir the pot every few minutes as it cooks to prevent the pasta from sticking to the bottom, but avoid over stirring which can cause the pasta to become sticky.
- Sprinkle with shaved Parmesan just before serving.
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Nutrition
How to Make One Pot Pasta – Step by Step Photos
Start with four cups of vegetable broth. The flavor intensity and salt content of your broth will make a big difference in the end flavor of the pasta. If you use a low sodium broth, the pasta will taste bland. I use Better Than Bouillon soup base for all of my broths because it is really flavorful, much less expensive than boxed or canned broths, and I can mix up any amount needed. These little jars last forever in the refrigerator, too, so it’s there whenever you need it. And no, I am not being paid to endorse it. :)
Add the four cups of broth to a large pot along with 12 oz. fettuccine, 2 Tbsp olive oil, 8oz. frozen spinach, a 28oz. can diced tomatoes (with the juices), 1 sliced onion, 4 cloves garlic (minced or sliced), 1/2 Tbsp dried basil, 1/2 Tbsp dried oregano, 1/4 tsp red pepper flakes, and some freshly cracked pepper. Although I show the fettuccine whole here, it’s best to break the pasta in half to help it fit in the pot and make it easier to stir later.
Briefly stir the pot and make sure all the pasta is submerged. Place a lid on the pot and bring it up to a boil over high heat. Once it reaches a full boil, remove the lid, turn the heat down to medium, and give it a stir. Make sure it’s still bubbling away when you turn the heat down. It needs to continue boiling for this to work.
Let it boil for 10-15 minutes, or until the pasta is cooked and most of the liquid has been absorbed or evaporated. Only stir once every few minutes to keep the pasta from sticking. Over stirring it can make the pasta overly mushy and sticky.
And then it’s done and it tastes amazing! Cool, huh? Sprinkle a little shaved Parmesan over top just before serving. This Tomato Spinach One Pot Pasta deserves a cape for being so amazing. That bowl was gone in 60 seconds. 👅
Try this recipe! It was very tasty!
I mostly followed the recipe but made a couple of small tweaks. I used 3 cups of vegetable broth instead of 4, used 12 ounces of bowtie pasta (would do this again), fire roasted tomatoes and added chicken sausage (perfect add). I put the onion and fresh garlic in olive oil in a pan for about 10 mins first, then cooked sausage and sliced. Set aside. Cooked everything else for 12 mins after boiling, then added the already cooked onion/garlic, sausage and 16 oz frozen bag chopped spinach (we love spinach). Cooked about 5 mins. It was slightly thin for my taste so I mixed 2 tbsp corn starch with 2 tbsp water, then added to the pot. Not sure if this was necessary but it worked. Perfect! Also the recipe would be good as written but I like a little spice and thicker sauce, plus needed a protein. Any protein would be fantastic to fill out the meal.
Easy, straightforward recipe. I like to throw in bell peppers as well because I like bell peppers. If you want to add some meat some andouille sausage or chopped up hotdog at the end (we are talking about budget bytes ;p )
I had this at my daughter’s house and it was delicious. Is there any way to adapt it to a crockpot?
In my experience, pasta doesn’t do well in the crock pot. :(
Make sure to add a package of sweet Italian sausage to this recipe. Its worth it!
You should have kept the name of this recipe Italian Wonderpot. Why did you change it?
Because it wasn’t accurate. :)
I have made this recipe the way it was made to be made, and then substituted literally everything in it to fit what I had on hand and it still turned out fantastically. This is a wonderful recipe, and I love it.
My family really enjoyed this recipe. We used fresh spinach, because it’s what we had. Next time, I think we’ll use half the amount of spinach. We also tossed in some mushrooms and it came out lovely.
This is such a good worknight meal–it’s so easy to put together and so delicious. I used bucatini, which is sturdy enough to stand up to stirring without getting gummy or sticky, and like others here used feta (because I was out of parmesan). I added some tomato paste to help thicken up the liquid, and used garlic bread to sop up what was left. I’m telling you, a glass of red wine, a couple of slices of garlic bread, and a bowl of Italian Wonderpot and I’m really in the weeknight dinner zone. Mmmm.
I love this recipe so much! One of my favorites to make when we have dinner guests!
This is the BEST one pot pasta recipes ever! So flavorful and so easy. I do add a few mushrooms. Just YUMMY!!!!! Thank you Budget Bytes 😊
This recipe was so easy!!! It is really good – it’s a keeper!!
I love this pasta! I did add two additional tablespoons of olive oil. The pasta was sticking to the bottom of the pot. Otherwise, I made no changes to the recipe.
As an Italian i feel like to say that’s not all wrong, but it has nothing to do with the italian colture
1° We don’t use spinach with pasta (or if somebody does, that’s not the way)
2° We use both onion and garlic only for “risotto” otherwise we choose for one of the two
3° and most important, we don’t just boil everything together
The right (and esyest) way to get an italian taste is to put pasta in his own pot of salt boiling water and to cook everything else in a frying pot in this order: 1° put in oil 2° put in onion or garlic (basing on how you feel, for exemple i would go with garlic for this one) 3° add diced tomatoes 4° leave it rest until the pasta is ready (usually takes from 7 to 15 minutes depending on the trademark) 5° add pasta (without any water… for long pasta you can just use a fork to take it from the pot to the frying pot) 6° add any kind of spicies you like (I don’t want to know lol) but tat’s going to be good without anything as well
Once you feel like that’s well rosted you can serve it
in case you’re interested i leave here the link to my favourite italian recipe blog https://sandrarecipe.wordpress.com/blog-2/
Dude, it’s a 1 pot convenience meal on Budget Bytes. It’s not that serious.
Don’t tell someone that their culture is “not that serious”. You don’t get to take our cuisine, bastardize it, then tell everyone you made “Italian” food, or worse, make money off it. I’m sick of all the fake Italian food out there.
Dude I’ll call it whatever I want. I’ll slap a can of tomato soup on a flour tortilla, top it with bologna, and call it “Super-Authentic-Italian-Pizza” all day. There ain’t nothing you and all of Italy can do about it other than die mad LMFAO
The only reference to it being Italian is a tag calling it “Italian inspired”. It never claims to be authentic.
You’ll get a wide variety of reactions to different cultures adapting the cuisine of other cultures.
But goddamn, this is petty as all hell. How much you want to @atides33 is Italian American and not actually Italian?
The whole point of this recipe is that it’s in one pot so as to make it easy and simple with minimal dishes.
We get it. You’re Italian. Chill.
This recipe is more than the sum of its parts. I have been visiting BudgetBytes for five years and always overlooked this recipe…until yesterday. Super simple, adaptable, and primarily made from pantry ingredients. Wonderful on its own or as a base for a protein (such as blackened chicken). No recipe modification required if using Barilla Gluten Free fettucine.
This recipe is a favorite in my house. It’s quick, easy, delicious, and super customizable. You can make it as written (awesome) or use whatever you have handy (probably also awesome). Our favorite “edits” are swapping the fettuccine for whole wheat penne, swapping the diced tomatoes for fire roasted diced tomatoes, and adding some Italian sausage. Be warned- these subs make it fairly spicy.
ooh… adding the Italian sausage sounds good! I was sitting here trying to think about how I might be able to round it out to make a whole meal. Though I’m rather curious as to how shredded chicken might taste mixed in. :)