Posted on by Deb

Easy Pasta for Dinner

Pasta and cheese

Around the Table

Fresh spinach

“Well, the story bit deeply into me and I went into it word for word. The more I thought about the story, the more profound it became to me.”

East of Eden, John Steinbeck

Inspiration

Sending a Tweet out into the world of the internet leads to amazing connections. I retweeted an important article from The Telegraph regarding the continuing decline of eating meals around the dinner table. The Tweet lead to a offer to collaborate with Furniture Choice to offer my thoughts on sharing family meals together.

We are all so busy, so very busy. Working, school and after school activities make for challenging feats of scheduling. Throw in the mixing bowl, relationships, social activities, the internet, life’s responsibilities and the recipe for time spent with family around the dinner table vanishes as fast as warm chocolate chip cookies. One can certainly eat well without gathering around a table together to share a meal. But there is no better place to pause and celebrate each day with those we love. Time spent around the kitchen table can be a place to offer advice and encouragement, learn from each other, solicit opinions, share values and gain an understanding of our culture and heritage. Taking time to stop and listen to everyone and learn about their day while sharing a meal nurtures the bonds that are family.

Essentials

Pause the daily whirlwind, connect and spend time sharing a meal around the table together. Everyone will be happier and a healthy family tradition will be born. Nothing fancy, take out or pizza will fill the hungry and keep sanity on hectic days. But if you have thirty minutes and a few staples in the pantry I have a simple recipe that lends itself to seasonal additions. Try fresh corn and pesto in the summer or roasted butternut squash in the fall. Meat is optional, but my family likes slices of chicken-apple sausage. Chunks of roasted chicken are also marvelous. A scoop of ricotta makes a fast creamy sauce in this incredibly easy and appealing pasta dinner. The recipe amply serves four with leftovers for lunch and can easily be doubled.

Pasta preparation

Ingredients
1 bunch or 5-6 oz bag spinach or arugula
8oz dried pasta, mini bow ties are a favorite
1 15oz can cannellini (white kidney beans) beans, rinsed and drained
1/2C ricotta cheese, low fat works well
12oz pre-cooked apple chicken sausage or roasted chicken
1/4C grated Parmesan or Romano cheese
  1. In a large bowl place half of the spinach or arugula.
  2. Cook the pasta according to the package directions. Drain and place the hot pasta in the bowl on top of the greens. Reserve 1/2 cup of the pasta water.
  3. While the pasta is cooking slice the chicken sausage and place in a heated skillet. Turn the sausage to brown on both sides. Add the warmed sausage to the bowl with the pasta and greens.
  4. To the bowl add the drained cannellini beans. If using, add any other lightly cooked or roasted vegetables such as tomatoes, corn, green beans, eggplant or zucchini. Add the ricotta cheese in scoops and toss the pasta to mix. Add the reserved pasta water a bit at a time to make a creamy sauce. Mix in the remaining greens and top with sprinkled Parmesan or Romano cheese.

This post is in collaboration with Furniture Choice who supply a great range of dining tables and chairs for the time you share family meals together.

Easy Pasta

36 Replies to “Easy Pasta for Dinner”

  3. We try and eat at the table most evenings – whether in our conservatory or outside under the oak tree. Although in the dead of winter we sometimes eat on out laps by the fire. Eating at a table is certainly the best way to have a conversation with your family, and get information out of teenagers! We don’t eat much pasta but when we do it is usually an unplanned dish, more a ‘let’s see what is lurking and likely’. Your simple, midweek-type recipe looks perfect for sharing under the spreading shade of our grand dame of a tree 😀

    1. Having a bit of tree envy! Most summer evenings the fog has arrived by dinner time and patio dining is not a option. But we do gather together to share our day while we have our dinner. Thank you for commenting Kellie, I appreciate you thoughts!

  5. I eat pasta, at my desk or in a hurry, all the time. I live alone, so setting up a table will never happen. But that doesn´t mean I can take the time to eat without doing something else that involves a plug in. It´s important to take time to think and share.
    What IS happening is this pasta recipe though! Sausages, ricotta and arugula, I can´t think of better ingredients!

  6. This is such a great post! It is so true that it is incredibly important to spend time around the dinner table with family and friends. Life moves way too quickly, but I always try to make time for a sit-down, home cooked dinner because I want to cherish those times while I can have them.

    1. Oh Laura! Life does move very quickly! Thank you for sharing your thoughts, I appreciate your comment!

  7. There were so many of us – eleven children – and somehow my parents managed to gather us around the dinner every night for a delicious home-cooked meal. I have so many lasting memories of those meals – the food, the conversation, the feeling of being connected. Your recipe proves that simple can be tasty. My idea of a “simply” satisfying meal.

    1. Thank you for the gracious comment Mary! Your love of family and the celebration of each day always shines brightly in your posts!

  9. You just provided a delicious idea for our dinner tonight! I have everything listed so it will be quick and easy and ohhhhhh, so good! Thanks Deb! Keep those recipes coming!

  10. We don’t currently have a table to dine around as we are renovating our house it it’s crazy the difference this has on your dining habits. We rush dinner on trays on our laps, I can’t wait to have a dinning table back so we can make an evening around eating and communicating it’s still so important but does get forgotten during busy times.

    1. Thank you for commenting Amanda! I agree, it does take a bit of effort to pause and take time to enjoy a meal together, but it worth the investment!

  11. Wow! What delicous looking dish. It sounds like it’s easy to make. It’ll be great for summer when you don’t want to spend a lot of time in the kitchen.

  13. I love pasta and the toppings you chose here are so tasty – love your suggestion to add other roasted veggies as well for a complete meal in a bowl!

    1. Thank you for the delightful comment Laura! I agree the Easy Pasta recipe is very flexible!

    1. Thank you for the lovely comment, I appreciate it! And yes this recipe is great on a busy evening!

  16. Enjoying a meal with family and or friends is one of the best things in life!
    Your plate of pasta is lovely and I’m happy to see how easy it is to put together such a satisfying meal 😉

    1. Thank you for the lovely comment Patty! I agree, it’s important to make time for family everyday!

  17. love easy pastas, especially in the summer! I agree: it’s really difficult in today’s world to find time to sit and have a meal together. In our house, it’s a combination of my husband’s late/irregular work schedule and the fact that the internets are open 24/7 (which is a continual blessing/curse). we try to carve out time for dinner together a few times a week where we actually stop what we’re doing and sit together, no distractions. i’m always surprised at how really refreshing it is.

  18. I always appreciate reminders to pause . . . to sit down and to enjoy meals together. It’s so important, and so easy to forget. Thank you for sharing this. (And YUM!)

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