Dinner
Creamy White Bean Pasta
White beans mashed into hot pasta water make a sauce that is genuinely creamy, high in protein, and costs about a dollar. This is not a sad substitute for alfredo. It is its own thing and it is better for you by a wide margin. Learn this one and you will make it every other week.
Cost a serving$1.30
Time20 minutes
Serves4
Protein22g
Pasta entree at a casual restaurant costs about $19. This costs $1.30 a serving.
You save about $17.70 every time you make it instead.
What you need
Pot, Skillet, Fork or potato masher
No special tools
No Blender for the sauce?Mash the beans with a fork right in the skillet. You get a slightly rustic sauce with some whole beans in it, which is better anyway. A blender makes it too smooth and it reads as baby food.
No Immersion blender?Same answer. The fork wins here. Save the counter space.
Ingredients
- 12 oz short pasta (rigatoni, shells, or penne)
- 3 tablespoons olive oil
- 5 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
- 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
- 2 cans (15 oz each) cannellini or great northern beans, drained
- 1 1/2 cups pasta cooking water, added gradually
- 1/2 cup grated parmesan, plus more for the table
- 2 cups frozen spinach or peas
- 1 teaspoon salt
- Black pepper
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
How to make it
- Boil a big pot of well salted water and start the pasta. Set a timer for 1 minute less than the box says.
- While it cooks, heat the olive oil in a skillet over medium-low. Add the sliced garlic and pepper flakes. Cook slowly, 4 to 5 minutes, until the garlic is pale gold and soft. Low and slow. Browned garlic is bitter garlic.
- Add both cans of drained beans and the salt. Stir to coat in the oil, then mash about two thirds of them with a fork against the bottom of the pan.
- Ladle in 1 cup of pasta water and stir. It will look thin and broken. Keep stirring over medium heat for 2 minutes and it will pull together into a sauce.
- Add the frozen spinach or peas and cook 2 minutes until heated through.
- Drain the pasta, reserving another half cup of water just in case, and add it straight to the skillet.
- Add the parmesan and toss hard over low heat for a full minute, adding splashes of pasta water until the sauce coats every piece. This is the step people skip and it is the step that matters.
- Off the heat, add the lemon juice and a lot of black pepper. Taste for salt.
Protein
About 22 grams per serving, which is high for a pasta dish and comes almost entirely from the beans and the wheat. No additions needed. This is one of the cheapest ways to hit a real protein number in this whole collection.
Ways to add more
- Add 1 cup frozen edamame with the spinach
- Top with plant-based sausage, sliced and browned
- A fried egg on top is not traditional and is very good
Keeping it
Three days. The sauce tightens up in the fridge. Reheat in a pan with a splash of water and stir it back together.
Change it up
- Add half a jar of sun dried tomatoes with their oil for a much richer version
- Stir in 2 tablespoons of pesto at the end
- Skip the parmesan and add 3 tablespoons nutritional yeast to make it dairy free