Of my Holiday Side Dish trio, I’m most proud of The Best (and Simplest) Creamed Spinach. Several years ago I developed a reduced calorie creamed spinach by substituting a light but highly seasoned white sauce for the heavy cream and butter, and that’s the way I’ve been making it ever since… until recently when Dreamfields Pasta asked me to develop a spinach-artichoke pasta recipe.
Riffing off spinach-artichoke dip, I discovered I could make a practically instant creamy pasta sauce by melting light cream cheese and using the spinach and its liquid to thin it. When it came time to re-think creamed spinach, I immediately thought of my instant creamy pasta sauce. My new creamed spinach starts with sautéing garlic to which I add cream cheese, thawed spinach and its liquid, and a little Parmesan cheese for depth of flavor. This classy dish can be on the table in under fifteen minutes, meaning it’ll work for weeknights too.
- 2 teaspoons olive oil
- 3 large garlic cloves, minced
- ½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 1 package (8 ounces) light (Neufchatel) cream cheese
- 2 packages (16 ounces each) frozen chopped spinach, thawed, reserving juice
- ½ cup finely grated Parmesan cheese
- Salt and freshly ground black pepper
- Heat oil, garlic, and nutmeg in a Dutch oven over medium-high heat until garlic starts to sizzle and turn golden. Add cream cheese and as it starts to melt, add spinach and its liquid; cook until sauce is thick and bubbly and spinach is tender yet still green, about 5 minutes. Stir in cheese, and season to taste with salt and pepper. Serve.
okay — where is the spinach / artichoke pasta recipe!!!!
PS — I absolutely hate nutmeg (sadly) — can you suggest something else?
thanks
T
i made this for Christmas, it was absolutely delicious and enjoyed by all. Even my friend’s one year old loved it!
Loved this! I used to do this with Pepper Jack cheese, also very good but this is certainly more classic. I beg to differ on your number of servings. I made half a recipe since there are only 2 of us. Was looking forward to leftovers for lunch tomorrow, but we ate it all. I will make a full recipe from now on. Thanks, Pam!
Not to complain but would you please consider offering the choice of no picture with the print option? It would have meant 1 page instead of 2 for this recipe. Thanks again!