Skip to main content

Spinach-Cannellini-Sundried Tomato Pasta (GF/V)

Last night I made one of my best meals to date (this was conferred by the boyfriend). It was also one of the simplest. Here's what went in:
  • Gluten-free penne pasta (I like this one by DeBoles)
  • 1 can cannellini beans (sometimes called white kidney beans)
  • 1 head fresh spinach
  • 1 bag sundried tomatoes, julienned 
  • olive oil, salt, pepper, paprika, garlic
I first boiled the pasta, which is a little more tricky with gluten-free pasta. As you can see in the picture, it tends not to hold its shape as well as traditional semolina/wheat pasta. I might have let it boil a minute too long. 

Next, I heated a frying pan and poured in some olive oil, probably a couple table spoons, then a spoonful of minced garlic, then added the other spices to my liking. 

I added into the pan the rinsed and torn spinach (if the leaves are large), beans, and sundried tomatoes, all over medium heat. I let it cook until all the spinach leaves were slightly wilted--probably 6 or 7 mins.--then I added in the pasta and stirred it all together and took it off of the heat. And viola!


The sundried tomatoes add quite a bit of flavor on their own, so not a lot of seasoning is needed. But I found that the spice of the paprika helped bring everything together in the dish.

This probably makes four "normal" servings, but for two runners in marathon training, it made two servings :)

Comments

People Liked to Read...

Play of Summer

Even though it is still technically spring time, the summer college semester begins in one week, the weather is consistently sunny and mid-80s, and baseball season is in full bloom. I embrace this time of year as a time to extend my outside activities beyond my nightly walks, to bike rides, benefit runs, beach days, and a newfound interest in softball. Yesterday Joe and I began the day with a 7:25am 5K run to benefit the Child Abuse Council . One of Tampa's largest and most regular 5Ks, the Gunn Allen Financial May Classic brought out over 1,500 of Tampa's athletes and do-gooders. Since it was a last-minute decision for us to register, we did not have a a chance to train, but we had both been keeping a somewhat regular exercise schedule in the weeks leading up to the run. Our goal was to finish, preferably to finish running. And we did. 36 minutes of concrete pounding, rhythmic breathing, and humanistic awareness, and we had completed our first 5K together, having run th...

A Three-Race Finale

So, after the Nike Women's Half Marathon I ran in DC, I told myself I'd take a rest afterward. But then someone kept tempting me to sign up for races. And because I was on a PR roll, I thought, hey, why not--let's end the spring race season with a bang. So I ran three races on the three weekends following Nike: the Police Appreciation 10K, Miles for Moffitt 5-Mile, and the Secret Service 5K. I PR'd two out of three, and finally got my 5K (official) PR I'd been hoping for. Interestingly, I placed eighth in my age group for all three races. Police Appreciation 10K - 5/5/13 Official Time: 0:49:46 Official Avg Pace: 8:00 mins/mile Age Group Place: 8/45 The unseasonably cool and breezy weather that morning made for a great race through scenic downtown St. Pete. Even though we learned later that we were led backward through the course as it was designed, which explains why we only saw the back sides of mile markers, we still ran the correct distance.  ...

My Ulele Feast with the Tampa Bay Bloggers; Or, That Time I Ate Alligator

Monday night, I had the delightful opportunity to be among the  Tampa Bay Bloggers  on a tasting event* at  Ulele  (pronounced yoo-LAY-lee), a newish restaurant along Tampa's River Walk, which is in a revitalization phase. The restaurant, which opened this past fall, has already received several significant commendations:  One of the Top 100 Restaurants in the U.S. (by Open Table),  One of the Best New Restaurants in Florida (by  Florida Trend ); Best Overall Restaurant (by Yelp Tampa Bay); and, its most recent achievement,  the  #7 spot for Top 50 Restaurants in Tampa Bay , as scored by Laura Reiley of the  Tampa Bay Times .  So I felt honored to eat there, and I'd been wanting to go since it opened, but reservations were always difficult to get. When I saw the call for bloggers to attend this event, I jumped at the opportunity! Fortunately, I was chosen--among may others: That's a lot of hungry bloggers! A...