Garlicky white bean and spinach pasta
Golden garlic, creamy white beans and a pile of spinach turn a box of pasta into a cozy, lemony dinner.
- 30 min total
- 20 min hands-on
- Follow-a-recipe easy
- Serves 4
- About $1.81 a serving
- 550 calories
- Vegan
- Dairy-free
Dolly says: Read the steps once before you start. Everything goes smoother after that.
Ingredients
For 4 servings.
- 12 oz penne
- 6 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
- 1 lemon, zested and halved
- 1 can cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
- 5 oz baby spinach
From your pantry
- 1 tbsp salt, plus more to taste
- ¼ cup olive oil, plus more for serving
- ¼ tsp red pepper flakes
- ½ tsp black pepper
Each serving has about 550 calories, 19 g protein, 85 g carbs and 15 g fat, and costs about $1.81 at typical US grocery prices. Both are estimates from what the recipe uses.
Missing something?
- No penne? Rigatoni or elbow macaroni works.
- No lemons? Limes work.
- No baby spinach? Kale or arugula works.
Steps
Tap an underlined word for a quick explanation.
Fill a large pot with water, cover it, and bring it over high heat.
Bring to a boil. It means heating a liquid on high until it’s fully boiling before you move on. A lid on the pot gets it there faster, which makes it a good moment to chop something.
How you’ll know: Big bubbles break all over the surface, and they keep coming when you lift the lid.
High heat
While it heats, the garlic and the lemon, then cut the lemon in half.
Thinly slice. Thinly slicing means cutting slices about an eighth of an inch thick, roughly two coins stacked. Thin slices cook in seconds and soften fast, which quick dishes need.
How you’ll know: A slice bends a little when you hold it by one edge, and slow, steady cuts beat fast ones.
Zest. Zest is the thin, colored outer layer of citrus peel, rubbed off on the smallest holes of a grater. It holds the fruit’s fragrant oils, so it adds bright flavor without the sourness of juice.
How you’ll know: You see bright flecks and smell citrus right away; stop when you reach the white layer, which is bitter.
Dolly’s tip: Even slices turn golden together. Thick ones stay raw while the thin ones burn.Add the salt and penne to the water and cook until , about 1 minute less than the package says, stirring a couple of times.
Boil. Boiling means heating a liquid until big bubbles rise and break all over the surface. It’s the fastest way to cook pasta, potatoes and eggs, because it’s as hot as water gets.
How you’ll know: Bubbles are breaking across the whole surface, not just at the edges, and steam is rising.
Al dente. Al dente is Italian for “to the tooth”: pasta cooked until tender but with a slight firm bite in the center. It holds up in sauce and keeps softening a little after you drain it.
How you’ll know: Bite a piece a minute before the package time: tender, with a slight firm bite in the middle and no crunch.
High heatTimer: 10 min
Meanwhile, put the olive oil and garlic in a large over medium heat and , stirring, until the garlic is pale , 2 to 3 minutes.
Skillet. A skillet is a frying pan: wide and flat with low, sloped sides. The shape lets steam escape, so food browns instead of stewing.
How you’ll know: It’s the pan you’d fry an egg in, and a 10 or 12 inch one handles most recipes.
Sauté. Sautéing means cooking cut-up food in a little oil or butter over medium to medium-high heat, stirring now and then. It cooks things quickly and browns them lightly without burning.
How you’ll know: You hear a steady, lively sizzle, not a hiss and spit, and the edges start to soften and color.
Golden brown. Golden brown is the color of good toast, somewhere between yellow and light brown. It means the outside is cooked and crisp but not burnt.
How you’ll know: It looks like toast and smells toasty; dark brown with a bitter smell means it went too far.
Medium heat
Dolly’s tip: Pull it the moment it turns light gold. Garlic goes from golden to bitter in about 30 seconds.Add the red pepper flakes and beans and cook for 2 minutes, lightly mashing a few beans with your spoon.
Medium heat
Dolly’s tip: The mashed beans melt into the oil and make the sauce creamy.Scoop out 1 cup of , then the pasta.
Reserve pasta water. It means scooping out a cup of the starchy cooking water before you drain the pasta. A splash helps the sauce cling and turn silky, and it’s the step everyone forgets.
How you’ll know: A mug of cloudy water is sitting by the stove before the pasta goes into the colander.
Drain. Draining means pouring off liquid, like tipping pasta into a colander or spooning extra fat out of the pan. Pour hot grease into a can or jar, not the sink, where it hardens and clogs the pipes.
How you’ll know: Only a few drips are left, and the food isn’t sitting in a puddle.
Tip the pasta back into its pot, add the garlicky beans, spinach and ½ cup , and over low heat until the spinach and the sauce looks glossy, about 2 minutes.
Reserve pasta water. It means scooping out a cup of the starchy cooking water before you drain the pasta. A splash helps the sauce cling and turn silky, and it’s the step everyone forgets.
How you’ll know: A mug of cloudy water is sitting by the stove before the pasta goes into the colander.
Toss. Tossing means gently lifting and turning food so everything gets coated, like pasta in sauce or vegetables in oil. It coats every piece evenly without mashing anything.
How you’ll know: Every piece looks glossy or evenly coated, with no dry spots hiding underneath.
Wilt. Wilting means cooking leafy greens just until they go soft and collapse. Greens shrink a lot, so a big pile of spinach becomes a small handful, and that’s normal.
How you’ll know: The leaves turn soft and deep green and slump into the pan, usually within a minute or two.
Low heat
Add the lemon zest, the juice of half the lemon and the pepper. Taste and add salt or more lemon until it tastes bright.
Low heat
Serve with a of olive oil, and more red pepper flakes if you like heat.
Drizzle. Drizzling means pouring a thin, slow stream over the top of something. A thin stream spreads a little flavor a long way.
How you’ll know: You see thin lines across the food, not a puddle collecting underneath.
Plan this in Dollop, and get the grocery list
Dollop puts this dinner on a night that suits your week, lists only what you still need to buy, and walks you through each step while you cook.
More dinners like this
One-pot tomato basil pasta
30 min
Sopa de fideo (Mexican noodle soup)
25 min
Moroccan-spiced couscous with chickpeas and carrots
25 min
Pesto pasta with peas and spinach
25 min
30-minute dinners ›Vegetarian dinners ›What to make with pasta and spinach ›