A Recipe: Spinach-Mushroom Pasta Sauce! (Bonus! It doubles as soup!)

 

Aha! Here is a recipe for you! 

I like to call this recipe "Annie's Favorite Pasta Sauce" because I am the only person in my family who actually loves it anymore. I started making it a couple of years ago and apparently I overdid it (as I am wont to do) because what once was a favorite now receives groans and gagging noises when placed on the table. Whatever, I still think it's delicious. 

It's basically just a spinach-mushroom-tomato sauce, and this is how to make it (this is pasta sauce enough for 2 boxes of Barilla rotini pasta, which feeds my family dinner and usually lunch the next day for the kids): 

Melt a nice hefty pat of butter in a small-medium sauce pan. To it, add a few chopped up cloves of garlic. (As I say: garlic aplenty!) To the garlic and butter, add a sprinkling of- salt, pepper, dill, chives, and onion powder. 

 

Let all that turn to a nice liquidy paste while you cut up some mushrooms. I use one box of baby bella, but you can use white button or really any kind of mushrooms and as many as you want. 

Toss in the mushrooms, and add a little chicken broth for liquid. 

After the mushrooms have cooked down a little bit, you add the spinach and tomatoes. You can use fresh of both, but I use canned tomatoes, and if I don't have fresh spinach, I use a box of frozen. I use the 14oz can of diced tomatoes, and no need to drain; just dump them all in, as well as the spinach. Add enough chicken broth to make it saucy, and let it bubble for a nice long while, letting all the flavors blend. You can add more chicken broth if you think you need more liquid.  

Make your pasta separately according to the package directions, then blend it all together, top with parmesan and serve hot! 

Now, here's the best part of this pasta sauce: IT CAN DOUBLE AS A SOUP! So let's say you make it as pasta sauce, then you go to retrieve your box of Rotini pasta, and OH CALAMITY! NO PASTA!? 

NO PROBLEM! 

Just add more chicken broth to this sauce, and throw in something like white beans, and you've got yourself a soup! 

My favorite dishes are the ones that can be 2-in-1. I love, love, love multi-meal cooking. 

Okay, so if this sounds yummy, try it out! And I hope you enjoy it as much as Sylvi did!