spinach cannellini pasta

We were out of all our breakfast berries and golden kiwis and bananas so off to Costco to restock. On entering there is a new product up front to catch entering member eyeballs. Pasta! And up in the corner Molise, ITALY!

Start typing "molise d..." and autocomplete does the rest of the typing for you: "molise doesn't exist." Or the Italian phrase "molise n..." immediately suggests "molise non esiste". A running joke in Italy. We even saw a cute indie comedy based on this joke. Molise is the Rodney Dangerfield of Italian provinces. All of which is irrelevant to this recipe, but explains why we were immediately caught by this new product which advertized HIGH PROTEIN, HIGH FIBER as well. It lent some credibility to the quality of the item. We have been trying to use whole grain pasta whenever possible to increase the nutritional benefit, so this serendipitous find fit our needs nicely. We grabbed a 4 pack immediately and needed to give it a test drive that evening.

And bob knew exactly what to do. Spinach. He had been reminded recently of how great spinach is for your health, and realized it was not in frequent rotation in our kitchen due to its boring usual preparation. Did we switch from present to past tense here somewhere along the way? Anyway bob is a baby boomer raised in the midcentury when Popeye the sailor man was a universal symbol marketing the benefits of spinach. The first Google search hit on keywords "spinach cannellini" after grabbing the big baby spinach package in Costco produced the winning entry that resonated with bob's sensibility, but required some modification in practice. Too much liquid. bob halved the 2 can bean line and reduced the 4 cups of veggie broth to maybe 1 1/2 cups which was still too much. Sous chef Ani grumbled about this, bob said give it time, time did not solve the extra liquid problem, so Ani tried to sieve some out into a tiny ladel loosing some stuff, then switched to a larger sieve. So our final recipe minimizes the liquid up front and jacks up the spinach component for a half liquid half bean recipe. You can also do this with a full lb box of pasta, but as two aging carb lovers, we are trying to increase the veggie to carb ratio in our pasta creations.

ingredients

• 1/2 lb good quality pasta, we used cavatappi
• 16 oz baby spinach, cooked down
• olive oil
• 1 onion, chopped
• 16 oz baby spinach, cooked down
• 4--5 cloves garlic, minced [we used 3 big clov
• 1 can cannellini beans, drained
• 1/2 c vegetable broth
• Kosher salt and black pepper, to taste
• 1/4 t crushed red pepper flakes
• 1/2 c Parmesan cheese
• 1 to 2 T lemon juice

instructions

1. Prep the onion and garlic and veggie broth (we used two bullion cubes and boiling water). Grate the cheese. Have more ready for serving. Drain the beans and rinse.
2. Throw all the spinach in a big pasta pot with maybe 1/2 -3/4 c water, bring to a boil and wilt down all the leaves. Then remove from the heat.
3. Meanwhile saute the onion in a large nonstick pot until softened, then add the garlic and briefly cook.
4. Then dump in the spinach with its cooking water (nutrients?), but make sure the total amount of liquid is not excessive at this point because next you have to simmer it all down so eventually it is not soup. Season with salt, pepper and red pepper flakes to taste.
5. Start the pasta pot water going again and cook the pasta al dente according to the package time.
6. Drain and combine in the pot with the rest of the stuff and continue simmering to reduce the fluid level. If this does not work, try draining some off however which way works for you, but try not to lose ingredients in the sink.
7. When ready (judgement call), remove from the heat and toss in the cheese and lemon juice.
8. Serve with extra parmigiano. This is not super attractive, but remember, comfort food is not for the looks. What the stomach wants, the stomach gets.

notes

1. The original recipe is at the blog Two Peas & Their Pod: creamy white beans with spinach. The pasta sauce application is the suggestion we were looking for.
2. Costco 4 pack: fusilli and cavatappi (curly mac). 21g protein and 9 g fiber per 3.5oz serving in a 16 oz box, so our 8 oz contribution leaving some leftovers must have delivered that much on average to each of us, more to bob of course with the high metabolism excuse to eat more than necessary.
3. Brami Protein Pasta made with Italian wheat and Lupini superbeans? Enjoy Brami! is their website.
4. Lupini beans? Apparently a high protein, high fiber bean. Why are we learning this only now? And the pasta is ideal for cardiovascular and digestive health!
5. Molise non esiste. Molise doesn't exist. [choice article of explanation]
6. American indie film: My Country (2018). Cute comedy about a New Yorker and his Italian cousin in Rome on a road trip to Molise to check out an inherited property, built with this nonexistence joke as a central premise.
7. Rodney Dangerfield.
8. Popeye the sailor man!
9. Of course in 2025 Big Brother was spying on bob's internet activities, and quickly suggested a similar orzo recipe in his Facebook feed that we should also consider in the future: one pot white bean spinach sun dried tomato orzo.
10. Illustrations available.

postscript

To draw at least some minimal amount of attention to this recipe, bob posted it to Facebook with this caption on the single photo:

So what is the Rodney Dangerfield of Italian provinces? And what is the latest new pasta product being featured at Costco? What might these have in common? You will learn the answers to both of these burning questions plus how to make a highly nutritious one pot dish for dinner in the comments below. Well, it takes two pots but everything ends up in one pot at the end. Whatever. Only one photo. It will have to do.