If you’re like us, you can eat pasta any time of the day. But sometimes we get stuck and it feels like we’re using the same ingredients over and over again. This recipe is the perfect dish to wake up those tastebuds again. Enjoy this chicken, spinach, and tomato pasta smothered in a creamy garlic sauce.
Use your flavours
This dish is packed with flavourful ingredients and herbs. Firstly, we’ll start by lightly cooking the chicken with paprika and Italian seasoning. By using the Italian seasoning, flavours like basil, oregano, rosemary, thyme and garlic will start filling the air. This, however, is definitely not enough garlic! We will be adding 5 cloves so that the garlic sauce is pungently delicious.
Once the spinach, tomatoes, red pepper and garlic is fried, its time to add the meat back to the pan. And chicken is not the only meat that will be added to this recipe. We will be adding bacon for that extra meaty texture and flavour. The bacon brings a delicious salty and smokiness to the flavours of the pasta.
Pasta Tip
We suggest using pasta that has a shell shape (like Conchiglie) or large enough surface so that the garlic sauce can really mix in with the dish and not just slide off the pasta.
And if you’re really feeling ambitious, be sure to check out the following: How To Make – Homemade Pasta (Without A Pasta Machine)
Chicken, Spinach, Tomatoes in Garlic Cream Pasta Sauce
Ingredients
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 500 g chicken chicken breasts sliced thinly
- 1 tsp paprika
- 1 tsp Italian seasoning
- 5 tomatoes medium, chopped in large cubes
- 1 cup baby spinach washed
- 5 cloves of garlic cloves minced
- ½ red pepper depicted and sliced
- 250 g bacon strips sliced and braised
- 300 g full cream milk
- 300 g cream
- 250 g grams hard cheese shredded
- 1 packet pasta of your choice
- 250 g Parmesan cheese shredded for serving
Instructions
- In a large skillet, on high heat, heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil until hot. Add chicken and cook on one side on high heat for 1 minute. While it cooks, sprinkle the uncooked sides of the chicken with paprika and Italian seasoning. Flip the chicken over and cook on the other side for 1 minute on high heat. Reduce heat to medium, flip chicken over again and cook, covered, for several minutes until no longer pink in the centre. Remove chicken from the pan and keep chicken warm.
- To the same pan (but without chicken), add chopped tomatoes, spinach, garlic, red pepper, 1/3 of the chicken and half the bacon (already cooked and drained). Mix everything.
- Add milk and cream, when boiling, add shredded hard cheese, immediately re-duce to simmer and stir, while simmering, until the cheese melts and makes the sauce creamy, only about 1 minute (at most 2 minutes). Then, immediately remove from heat. Season with more crushed red pepper and salt, if needed.
- In the meantime bring a large pot of water to boil, add pasta and cook it according to instructions. Drain the pasta, rinse with cold water and drain again.
- Add pasta to the skillet with the sauce. Add the remaining half of the bacon. Season with more salt if necessary. Slice the remaining 2/3 of chicken into thinner strips if needed. Top the pasta with chicken strips and shredded Parmesan cheese.