This spicy pasta has a creamy tomato based sauce. The chilli flakes give a nice heat that you can adjust to your preferred spice level.

Pasta is one of my favourite things to make as a uni student. Its both quick and easy to make and doesn’t cost a lot. However, I don’t have pasta every night of the week, so if I buy a jar of pasta sauce then it usually goes off before I can use it up. Making your own sauce means you can control how much you make, and trust me its a lot easier than you think!

This pasta originally started as just a spicy tomato sauce but I definitely don’t get enough veggies 😬, so I thought I’d add some in. Also the spinach and mushrooms go really nice together. I don’t have specific mushroom listed because I just use what’s on hand. I tend to use a closed cup mushroom or button mushroom.

If you don’t have cream I have made this recipe using milk. You may need to add a little bit extra pasta water to if its too thin (the starch from the pasta helps to thicken it).

RELATED: Spinach and Mushroom Crepes

Spicy Pasta with Spinach and Mushrooms

Creamy tomato based pasta sauce with chilli flakes for a nice heat

Keyword Spicy Pasta

Prep Time 5

Cook Time 25

Servings 2 servings

Ingredients

1 Tbsp Oil
1/2 Onion diced
100 g Mushroom
2-3 cloves Garlic minced
4 Tbsp Tomato paste
1/2 c Cream
1/2 cup Reserved pasta water
Salt and Pepper
1/4 c Parmesan grated
Baby Spinach
1 tsp Chilli flakes
1 ½ cup Pasta roughly

Instructions

Prep your ingredients by dicing the onion and slicing the mushrooms, you can also mince your garlic at this point if you don't have a garlic press
Set a pot of salted water to boil, then add in your pasta to cook
When your pasta is cooked drain it but reserve 1/2 -1 cup of the water
While the pasta is cooking heat your oil in a pan over medium low heat then add your onion
Once your onion has begun to soften add in the mushrooms
When the mushrooms have browned add in the garlic and cook for about a minute before adding the tomato paste
Stir in the tomato paste and let it cook a little
Add in the cream and stir until fully combined with the tomato paste
Add in some of the pasta water, a spoonful at a time. You can adjust how much water you add depending on how thick or thin you want your sauce.
Sprinkle in the chilli flakes.
Let the sauce cook for a few minutes then taste and add salt and pepper as needed
Mix in the grated parmesan
Roughly chop about 2 generous handfuls of spinach and add to the sauce. Mix through and allow the spinach to cook
Finally turn off the heat and add the cooked pasta straight to the sauce pan. Stir to fully coat the pasta in sauce
Serve in a bowl with some grated parmesan sprinkled on top

Notes

The pasta measurement is just a rough approximation of how much dry pasta you will need. If you are using a different shape of pasta it will change slightly.

Let me know your thoughts down in the comments! And tag me on instagram @littlewalletbigdreams if you make it.