This Tuscan White Bean Pasta is definitely my type of recipe. It’s quick, uses a lot of fresh ingredients, is very filling, and flavorful. This pasta packs protein (white beans and parmesan), veggies (tomatoes and spinach), and carbohydrates (pasta), making it a great one-dish meal. You can serve it up as is for a lighter main dish, or add some sliced grilled chicken to make it a bit more filling.
This post contains some affiliate links, which means that we make a small commission off items you purchase at no additional cost to you.
Can I Substitute the Tomatoes?
If you can’t find fresh tomatoes and spinach for a good price, you can substitute one can of diced tomatoes (with juices) in their place. Make sure to let them simmer a bit so the juices reduce and concentrate in flavor.
Can I Use Frozen Spinach?
Yes, if needed, you can use frozen chopped spinach, although the texture of fresh spinach is far better for this recipe. Kale can also be substituted for the spinach, just make sure to tear it into very small pieces and it will take slightly more time to wilt down in the skillet.
What Kind of Pasta Should I Use?
I prefer a long pasta for this dish, like fettuccine or linguine, but you could also easily do this with a shorter pasta like penne or bowtie pasta.
Tuscan White Bean Pasta
Servings 4Ingredients
- 8 oz. linguine or fettuccine ($0.63)
- 1 Tbsp olive oil ($0.13)
- 1 Tbsp butter ($0.13)
- 3 cloves garlic, minced ($0.24)
- 1 pint grape or cherry tomatoes ($1.99)
- 10 cranks freshly ground pepper ($0.03)
- 1/2 tsp salt ($0.02)
- 1/2 tsp dried basil ($0.05)
- 1 15oz. can cannellini beans ($0.69)
- 4 oz. baby spinach ($0.65)
- 3 oz. shredded parmesan ($1.89)
Instructions
- Fill a large pot with water and place over high heat to bring it to a boil. Once boiling, add the pasta and cook according to the package directions (boil for 7-10 minutes). Drain the pasta in a colander.
- While you’re waiting for the water to boil, mince the garlic. Heat the olive oil and butter in a large skillet over medium-low heat. Add the garlic and sauté for about a minute, or until it has softened and become very fragrant.
- Add the tomatoes, salt, pepper and basil. Sauté the tomatoes until the skins burst and the tomatoes begin to release their juices. It’s important to not have the heat under the skillet too high here or the garlic may burn before the tomatoes break down. You want the garlic to brown and caramelize a bit, but not burn.
- Once the tomatoes begin to break down, add the spinach and stir it into the tomatoes until it is about half way wilted.
- Rinse and drain the can of cannellini beans. Add the beans to the skillet and stir until they are heated through. The tomato juices will have created a thick sauce-like mixture on the bottom of the skillet at this point. Taste the mixture and add a bit more salt if needed. It should be slightly on the salty side in order to properly flavor the pasta.
- Add the cooked and drained pasta to the skillet. Toss until the pasta is coated in the sticky sauce and everything is combined. Top with shredded parmesan, plus add a bit of Parmesan to the top of each bowl.
See how we calculate recipe costs here.
Nutrition
Have you tried this recipe?Mention @budgetbytes or tag #budgetbytes on Instagram!Video
Scroll down for the step by step photos!
How to Make Tuscan White Bean Pasta – Step By Step Photos
Bring a large pot of water to a boil for the pasta. Once boiling, add 8 oz. fettuccine or linguine and cook according to the package directions. Drain the pasta in a colander. As the water is heating, mince 3 cloves of garlic. Add the minced garlic to a large skillet along with 1 Tbsp olive oil and 1 Tbsp butter. Sauté over medium-low heat for 1-2 minutes, or just until the garlic is soft and fragrant.
Add 1 pint grape tomatoes, 1/2 tsp dried basil, some freshly cracked pepper, and 1/2 tsp salt. Continue to sauté until the tomatoes pop open and begin to break down. The juices will begin to create a thick, almost jam-like sauce. The garlic will caramelize and turn a bit brown, just make sure the heat is not so high that it begins to burn before the tomatoes begin to pop open and release their juices.
Add 4 oz. fresh spinach and sauté for a couple of minutes, or until it’s mostly wilted.
Rinse and drain one 15oz. can of cannellini beans and add them to the skillet. Continue to sauté until they are heated through. Taste the mixture at this point and add a bit of salt if needed. You want it to be slightly on the salty side in order to flavor all the pasta.
Add the cooked and drained pasta, then toss until everything is coated in the tomato juices.
Top with Parmesan cheese and enjoy!
This Tuscan White Bean Pasta is hearty enough to stand alone as a one dish meal, or you can pair it with some grilled chicken and maybe some homemade garlic bread. Enjoy!
See this recipe in my weekly meal prep!
Delicious! Look forward to having it again someday. We shopped at Aldi the other day and only needed 14-15 ounces of diced tomatoes and they only had the 28oz can. So, I just used half of it. We used the rest of the can in the pasta tonight, so it still had a tomato-ey flavor, but I bet it is delicious with the grape tomatoes. We’ll do that next time. Also, our parmesan cheese all got too old, so we threw it away, but we had gruyere cheese in stock. i grated that and it was delicious! We’ll have to buy some new parm cheese on a future grocery trip.
This was so easy, and soooo flavorful! The caramelized garlic and tomatoes were OUT OF THIS WORLD, seriously. It’s filling, it’s delicious, and it comes together in about 20 minutes – what’s not to love?
A note to myself for the future, however: next time, I might try leaving the tomatoes out on the counter to bring them to room temperature before I start cooking. I took mine pretty much straight out of the fridge, and I had some trouble getting them to pop before the garlic started to brown, and I had the heat pretty low.
Oh, and that’s another thing I loved about this recipe – it ended up being a perfect “sweep the fridge” meal! I had a bunch of spinach and two leftover half-pints of tomatoes that were starting to look a little wrinkly, but still tasted just fine. This was the perfect recipe to use them all up!
Hello I tried to print this recipe for 8 servings but the printing window never updates the quantities please take a look.
Hi Victor, sorry for the troubles. Are you working on a mobile device or computer? When the recipe opens in a new window to print you can adjust the servings again at the top if needed. If you’d like to shoot me an email at support@budgetbytes.com I can help you further if you want.
I saw this recipe on FB yesterday and shared with my sister to see if this was something our family would like. Then I just went ahead and made it for supper last evening and LOVED it. I used medium shells instead of long pasta – I love the way the beans hide inside the shells. Had both red and yellow cherry tomatoes which was a visual perk and used fresh basil because we grow it year round. I will be making this over and over. Someone mentioned using chickpeas and I think that would stretch the protein factor even more. GREAT recipe. Thanks.
Beth, thanks for this. We loved it! I saw it in your email today and decided to make it tonight and glad I did.
(I had some spinach that i needed to use)
I often make a Tuscan bean soup, but had never thought of making it a pasta dish. Brilliant!
I used canned tomatoes and tri colored rotini pasta and used fresh basil and sprinkled just a bit of Parmesan cheese on top. So good!
My husband and I both loved this receipe even though hes a real meat and potatoes kind of guy!
Our family loved it. We Followed the recipe as given except we were out of basil . Thanks for another easy beautiful and tasty vegetarian dish .
I made this for my boyfriend last night and he absolutely loved it so much he wants to make it for his mom! This was so easy to put together and packed so much flavor. We didn’t have fresh spinach on hand so we substituted for frozen spinach. I squeezed lemon on top which really brought out the flavors.
So simple and just delicious! A real crowd pleaser.
I’m having leftovers of this for lunch today and I cant contain my excitement. Seriously this was so quick and easy to throw together. I didn’t have cherry tomatoes so I used small vine tomatoes that I had on hand and mashed them in. They produced more sauce but I liked that. I also added a bit of chili pepper flakes.
I used kale instead of spinach and pearl couscous instead of noodles and it makes a perfect meal planning lunch!
Made this tonight for staunch meat eaters … and they all LOVED it. Fast and delicious; we will be having this again. I also paired this with your Maple Roasted Acorn Squash, which is divine!!
That’s an amazing pairing! Great work!
Tried this out for our “Meatless Monday” dinner and it was fabulous! I used rotini pasta because that is what I had on hand, and fresh basil because I have a basil plant — so so so good! Also used nutritional yeast instead of parmesan as we are a dairy-free household.
Next time I might add a can of chickpeas in addition to the cannellini beans, just to add to the bean-y goodness. Made enough for two adults for dinner, with leftovers for my lunch today! Would be good as a side dish with some grilled fish, too!
Your Golden Coconut Lentil Soup is going to be my next one to try!! Thanks for having so many vegan and vegetarian dishes!!
The flavor on this was really really good! But there’s no way you’re getting four servings out of this. I seasoned and sauteed two chicken breasts and that came out to just enough for two good sized servings. The flavors are on point i’d just recommend adding a salad, extra veg, or bread on the side
This dish was perfection. So very good.
I was feeling adventurous so I combined this recipe (which I love as is) with your garlic herb chickpeas. I gotta say it was pretty tasty!
Thank you I will try with chickpeas