Fresh One-Pan Spinach & Tomato Pasta | La Cucina di Kerrs

Let’s talk about those plans, shall we?!  I had big plans to attempt to make Papa’s Lasagna last week with the ready-to-bake cheat pasta sheets we had to use up in the fridge & forgot to add a few key ingredients to our grocery order.  Like so many other plans that have been kiboshed this year, pivoting to PLAN B was in order, and well, as a mom of four kids, this is kind of my wheelhouse 😉  Don’t have the ingredients or energy to make that lasagna you had intended to?  No worries – insert another way to use those lasagna sheets winking at you in the fridge – this Fresh One-Pan Spinach & Tomato Pasta recipe (aka “Plan B Pasta Fresca” ;))!  Just chop up those fresh pasta sheets & incorporate with any other veggies about to turn bad in your fridge in this delicious one-pan wonder!

About the Ingredients for this One-Pan Pasta

• My vegetable mix for this pasta was spinach & fresh tomatoes simply because they were the veggies I needed to use up before going bad (*anyone else constantly forgetting that container of baby spinach in the back of their fridge until it’s too late?! – yikes*).  Check out this Produce Shelf-Life Guide to learn which fresh fruits & veggies to use first in your fridge.  Other in-season vegetables we’ve added before include asparagus, zucchini, eggplant and such.  Because there is no traditional “sauce” to this dish, tomatoes are definitely required, but the type can be whatever you have on-hand.  As back up, you could use diced tomatoes but add some cook time to the sauteeing step.
• I added sundried tomatoes for added flavour & to use up a small portion of them I had leftover from another recipe.  You can leave these out if you don’t have any on-hand.

• 1 package of ready to bake lasagna sheets (360g) made a nice large portion for our family of six.  Reduce/add sheets as required.  If making a larger portion up the oil & broth base ingredients and make sure your sauce pan is large enough to accommodate the bigger load.  We cut the sheets into 1/2 inch wide pieces by free-hand, but you could use your desired setting on your pasta-maker machine for more precise cutting.
• As with most of our pasta dishes, we used freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, but you could also use pre-grated parmesan as a substitute.
• We used a chicken-flavoured low sodium broth, but any flavour will do.
• You’ll notice most of our recipes aren’t precise measurements – a handful of this, a pinch of that – because I learned to cook the Italian quanto basta way (“as much as you like; as much as you need)”  Don’t be afraid to add/reduce my suggestions according to your family’s taste!

If you love this recipe, you’ll probably enjoy some of our other quick & delicious pasta recipes!   Here are some of our other favourite one-pan/pot pasta dishes:

Springtime Asparagus & Peas Pasta

One-Pot Pasta e Fagioli

One-Pot Lemon Garlic Shrimp Pasta

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if you try!

Keep well, eat well,