Pasta is usually always delicious. And it's especially delicious with spinach. And spinach happens to be especially delicious with cheese. And this dish has all of those things. So as you can imagine, it is exceedingly good. Unless you don't like cheese or pasta (or spinach, but then you wouldn't be here).I used cheese ravioli, but you can use any pasta you like. Tortellini works just as well (but is usually a bit pricier) or if you want to hold off on cheese, you can use regular pasta that isn't stuffed. To make it vegetarian, substitute the shrimp with more spinach or artichoke hearts (yum). Or any other veggie you enjoy with cheese. I don't usually buy regular milk, so I used coconut milk instead for the cream base. The taste is just as good, but if you don't have coconut milk or prefer regular dairy milk, that's fine too.
You Will Need
1. Two cups fresh baby spinach
2. One cup coconut milk
3. Half cup shrimp -- peeled and deveined
4. A few slices of butter
5. Around 1-2 oz sharp white cheddar cheese (between a 4th or half cup when shredded)
6. Two tbs. cream cheese
7. Half tsp. minced garlic
8. 1 tsp. flour
9. Around 12 oz (2-3 cups) of frozen cheese ravioli (I used half of 25 oz bag)
10. One tbs. pesto
First, start a pot of boiling water for the ravioli. When the water reaches a boil, add the ravioli. To avoid sticking, you can add a little bit of oil to the pot as well. Let the ravioli boil for around 7-8 minutes or until soft. (But not too soft). While the ravioli boil, prep the cream sauce. Heat the pan at medium heat and add the butter and garlic.
When garlic starts to brown slightly, add the flour and stir evenly around the butter which will help thicken the cream sauce later.
Right when the garlic and flour are golden brown, pour over the coconut milk and stir. You may have to reduce the heat a bit depending on your pan.
When you've mixed an even cream base, add the cheeses. It's easiest to chop or shred the cheddar so that it will melt quicker.
After mixing in all of the cheese, add both greens: your spinach and pesto. Stir around until the pesto blends in with the rest of the cream sauce and the spinach starts to darken and wilt.
Wait until the ravioli are cooked and drained before you add the shrimp. (You can't be doing other things while the shrimp cook or you will stop paying attention and over cook them). So when your ravioli are all ready and when your cheesy cream spinach sauce looks like cheesy cream spinach sauce, add the shrimp. These cook super fast. Just fold them around in the sauce until they turn pink.
When your shrimp cook about half way (this takes probably a minute...) add the ravioli and fold into the sauce with the shrimp. Do this until your shrimp are cooked to your liking. It's really tempting to keep stirring but remember that the shrimp and pasta will continue to cook even after you turn off the stove. When your pasta looks good enough to eat, it's time to serve + enjoy.
Overall, we both really liked this. There's not much we would change except maybe add more spinach or more shrimp (A's critiques). Which are valid. You can also substitute cream cheese or white cheddar with other cheeses and make just as yum of a cheese sauce. It's also a fairly simple recipe to make. Enjoy!
- A + D
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