Pasta with spinach, white beans, and red peppers

November 10, 2006 at 7:50 pm (Beans, Beans and greens, F (0 stars, inedible), Pasta, Quick weeknight recipe, Starches, Website / blog)

I was looking for a recipe with spinach and red peppers, both of which I have oodles of, and I found this recipe online. It looked suspiciously like one of those “easy but tasteless” recipes, but I figured I had enough produce to spare I could take the chance.

  • 4 ounces whole wheat pasta, measured dry
  • 1 cup raw spinach
  • 1 cup red bell peppers diced
  • 1 Tbs. olive oil
  • 2 Tbs. tomato paste
  • 2 Tbs. parmesan cheese grated
  • 2/3 cup cooked white beans

Directions:
1. boil water & pasta
2. in pan toss all other ingredients with a little pasta water
3. spice with hot peppers flakes, cumin, oregano, or saffron

The dish looked very pretty–it had that pale red color of typical cream-based red sauces, or maybe a pimento-based sauce. But the mouthfeel was bad: the sauce tasted powdery for some reason? I used canned beans, and rinsed them well, but they were very mealy tasting. Blech. Also, I didn’t think it had nearly enough spinach. I added more oregano and pepper flakes to spice it up and now it’s certainly not bland, but still somewhat unappetizing to me. I took the second half for lunch today and I ate most of it but I really didn’t enjoy it.

Rating: D

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