I hadn’t planned to put this recipe on the blog. There’s not much to it, and the photos from my kitchen counter at 8 pm on a weeknight are hardly the stuff of Pinterest dreams.

But, this is a delicious, simple meal that with a few fresh, simple ingredients can make your life so much easier. Dinner, done in the time it takes you to cook a serve or two of fettucini, are you ready for this?

Weeknight Pasta Dinner

YOU’LL NEED

• Two serves of fettucini
• 1 – 2 generous handfuls of baby spinach
• 2 – 3 large Roma tomatoes (just so much flavour!)
• One spring onion, white part, finely chopped
• One heaped tablespoon of garlic (or to taste)
• 1/2 cup of fresh cream
• Juice of half a lemon
• Olive oil (for pasta water)
• Salt and pepper to taste

DO THIS

• Get your pasta water boiling with a generous amount of salt and a few glugs of olive oil (stops the pasta sticking together)
• Dice your tomatoes, roughly chop the spinach, finely chop the spring onion
• Season the prepared vegetables with salt and pepper
• Heat a frying pan (I like using my one with high sides for this sort of thing) start on high
• Add the tomatoes, spinach and spring onion
• As it starts to reduce, add the garlic just before the cream (next) so it doesn’t burn and turn bitter
• Reduce heat to medium on the frying pan
• When the water is boiling, add your pasta
• Add the cream to your frying pan and stir to combine
• Allow frying pan to simmer without stirring. You want the cream to reduce without breakdown your other ingredients too much further. That is how you keep the tomatoes red and the spinach bright green. The cream should start to go a brownish shade and thicken. Then it’s go time.
• Drain pasta when cooked to your liking (keep a bit of bite, it’s going back in the pan for a second soon), the pasta can be a bit wet, this helps to thin out the sauce in the frying pan
• Place pasta in the frying pan on top of the other ingredients
• Combine and squeeze with fresh lemon just before serving
• Eat immediately!

Serves two, though that’s kind of dependant on the amount of pasta you cooked and how big your tomatoes are.

Melissa Walker Horn

Hi! I’m Melissa Walker Horn. Around here, they call me Suger. I’m the Chief Blogger and doer of all the things here at Suger Coat It. Blogging since 1901; I love a casual ootd, taking photos, and writing about things that irk or inspire me. I love wine and cheese, long days at the beach and spending time with my family. I make stuff for the internet over at Chalkboard Digital. You know, living the sweet life.