Popeye pasta

It takes just two ingredients to make this pasta sauce… a bag of spinach and a bulb of garlic. Really easy, really tasty and something a bit different.

Oh, you’ll also need:

-a bowl of iced water

-a blender

-some pasta

-a pinch of salt

-a drizzle of olive oil

Yuh. Me.

Serves: 2

Prep time: 2 mins

Cook time: Around 25 mins

Method

Start off by roasting your garlic. Pop the oven on at 180°c before cutting across the top of the bulb to expose all the cloves. Hit those exposed tops with a sprinkly pinch of salt and a drizzly glug of olive oil. Wrap loosely with foil from the bottom up, making a little spout at the top to make it easier to handle. Roast in the oven for 20-25 minutes, depending on how big the bulb is. It’s ready when it feels super-soft to touch with a light squeeze. Once it’s ready, remove and allow to cool.

For the spinach, have a bowl of iced water ready on the side before bringing a large pot of water to the boil. Add a very generous pinch of salt and, working in batches, plunge the spinach into the boiling water, stirring until the leaves soften and start to turn a darker, vibrant green. It won't take much longer than 10 seconds for each batch, so act quickly. As soon as the leaves feel ready, plunge them into the ice bath as quickly as you can to stop the cooking and retain that wonderful colour and goodness. It’s easiest to use a slotted spoon or something similar. Repeat for all the spinach.

Drain the iced water and give the spinach a good squeeze with your hands to get rid of any excess moisture before throwing it into a small blender (nutribullet works great for this). Add a generous pinch of salt.

Unwrap the garlic and squeeze all the oozey cloves out using the back of a large knife. Scoop the roasted garlic into your blender.

Lock and pop time, baby! Blitz it on a furiously high speed for around a minute or so until you have a silky smooth spinach puree.

Cook your pasta per the packet instructions and reserve a big old mug full of starchy pasta water before draining. Stir the puree through the pasta, adding a large glug of the starchy water at a time until you have your desired saucy consistency. It’ll soak up at least half of your mugfull.

Garnish with super finely chopped red chilli, parmigiano reggiano and some black pepper.

TIPS

• Add salt to your pasta water only once it’s boiled - it takes longer to boil if you add it earlier.

• If you're leaving the cooked spinach out or in the fridge for any reason (I often prep the puree well in advance), be sure to cover and seal it so that it’s not exposed to air.

• Reminder: this dish really won’t be the same if you forget to reserve and splash in the pasta water.

• I can’t stress enough how little time the spinach needs in the boiling water. Blink and you’ll overdo it.

• Lift this (or any pasta) dish with this easy pangrattato. It adds a whole new level to your pasta game.