Green Angel Hair with Garlic Butter

Green angel hair pasta with garlic butter is a vibrant dish made with a spinach, roasted garlic, and butter sauce. It’s an easy and family-friendly weeknight dinner.

Yesterday I finally got around to making my holiday prep list, and let me just say this one thing: it’s long.

Like “how can a full time working human with two children possibly complete all of this in the next four days and still make dinner every night” long. There’s baking and cleaning and cooking and wrapping and DID I MENTION DINNER EVERY NIGHT.

It’s very unclear how all of this will get done, but with a little Christmas magic and the brute force of a mother unhinged (aka with a LOT of coffee and very little sleep), it will.

Oh. It. Will.

Also helping, at least on the dinner front: the green angel hair pasta with garlic butter from Deb Perelman of Smitten Kitchen fame’s latest cookbook, Smitten Kitchen Keepers.

It’s a mean, green, weeknight dinner ennui fighting machine and honestly I’m wondering how I survived these 30 some-odd years (or, at the least, the last few years of motherhood) without it. I am all about trying new recipes, but there are some recipes that are just so good or so simple (or hopefully both!) that I keep them in my back pocket for those nights when nothing is going right and I just need to cook something easy that will make the whole family happy.

This is one of those recipes. 

In keeping with most of Deb’s recipes, its genius lies in its simplicity. She is the queen of cutting corners that can be cut without sacrificing flavor, resulting in dishes that are as seamless to prepare as they are delicious. Very frequently this involves a special technique or a secret ingredient that turns what would otherwise be a ho-hum dish into something kind of magical.

In the case of this pasta, the wow factor comes from two of the most ubiquitous ingredients out there: garlic and butter. Individually great, but better together especially after a long slow roast in the oven that turns the garlic into a luscious velvety paste that infuses into the butter in all of its sweet, nutty glory. Both the butter and the roasted garlic cloves are mashed together and then combined in a blender with a truly virtuous amount of spinach and a splash of pasta cooking water. 

These are pureed into a vibrantly green sauce that coats angel hair noodles perfectly and shines with the additions of black pepper, handfuls of parmesan cheese, and (if you’re daring) generous pinches of red pepper flakes. It’s a surefire way to get children (and husbands) to eat their veggies and gets dinner on the table with minimal fuss, something that I am all about this holiday season.

Green Angel Hair with Garlic Butter

 

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Green angel hair pasta with garlic butter is a vibrant dish made with a spinach, roasted garlic, and butter sauce. It's an easy and family-friendly weeknight dinner.

Yield: 4 servings

Ingredients

• ½ cup butter, sliced into 4 pieces
• kosher salt
• 1 large head of garlic, halved crosswise, skin intact
• 1 lb angel hair pasta
• 5 oz baby spinach
• freshly ground black pepper or red pepper flakes (or both!)
• parmesan cheese, to finish

Instructions

1. Heat oven to 375F.
2. Arrange the butter on the bottom of a small baking dish. Sprinkle with salt. Place the garlic halves cut side down on top of the butter. Cover tightly with foil and bake for 35-45 minutes, or until the garlic is completely soft and buttery.
3. Remove from the oven and carefully remove the foil. Remove the garlic cloves from the peel and mix them with the melted butter. Set aside.
4. Meanwhile, cook the pasta in well salted water until just al dente. Remove 1 cup of pasta cooking water before draining the pasta. Set aside.
5. Place the spinach in a blender along with the garlic butter. Add a pinch of salt, a few grinds of black pepper or red pepper flakes, and blend until completely smooth. Add a tbsp or two of the reserved pasta water if needed. Season to taste with salt and black pepper.
6. Pour the spinach sauce into the empty pot that you used to cook the pasta. Add the drained pasta along with a splash of pasta water. Cook over medium-high heat, tossing constantly, for 2 minutes or until the sauce thickens enough to coat the spaghetti.
7. Divide among serving bowls and top with more pepper and grated parmesan cheese.

Notes

Recipe from Smitten Kitchen Keepers

3.5.3208