Quick Spinach Pasta with Chickpeas recipe. Spinach Linguine is a great canvas to add a sauce of garlic, fresh rosemary and red pepper flakes. Stir in some chickpeas for texture and top with grated Parmesan cheese and you’ve got an easy vegetarian chickpeas and pasta dinner.
If you’re a regular reader, you know how much I love to recreate restaurant meals in my own kitchen. Here’s my latest adventure. So easy, this was a cinch to make at home.
A few months ago, I had a fantastic spinach linguine pasta dish at a local restaurant and I promised myself to make it at home. Prying a few details out of the waiter and I felt fairly comfortable.
And what family doesn’t love having a spaghetti night. And what cook doesn’t love a recipe that’s ready in under 30 minutes? Que this chickpeas and pasta recipe.
Pasta with Chickpeas Recipe – Easy Weeknight Dinner
This chickpeas (garbanzo beans) and pasta recipe is so easy, you’ll want to add it to your weeknight meal rotation. It takes less than 30 minutes from start to finish to plate.
Spinach linguine, or any type of spinach pasta brings a luscious color to the plate, and the chickpeas which are mild in flavor, add a nice crunch of texture. The garlic rosemary sauce finishes the meal with a blast of irrisistable personality. And as far as pasta dishes go, this is about as healthy as you can get.
The garlicy smooth sauce is one of those that somewhat makes itself. Just heat olive oil in a fry pan add fresh rosemary and parsley. Add in the garlic and red pepper flakes and add some of the starchy water from the cooked pasta and finish stovetop. It comes together easy and quick.
Using Cooked Pasta Water in Pasta Sauces
If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it one million times. Don’t toss out all of that pasta water. It’s liquid gold.
It’s a must to add to any sauce for any pasta dish. The starchy water helps the sauce cling to the pasta and it gives the pasta that signature “sound” to know you’ve created the perfect pasta.
And for this dish, we’re using it to pretty much make the sauce.
Ingredients For This Pasta Dish
This is one of those meals that is made mostly with pantry items.
- Spinach Linguine: if you don’t have spinach linguine, you can use regular spaghetti or fettuccini. You’ll just be losing some of that colorful personality.
- Olive Oil: Simply use what you have on hand. Since you’re using the oil to sautee, the quality factor isn’t as important as if you were making a delicate vinaigrette. I always keep a high quality extra virgin olive oil on hand for dressings or vinaigrettes. And a large bottle from Costco for sauteeing.
- Garlic Cloves: You’ll need 6 cloves of garlic for this recipe. Please don’t use a garlic press. Fine chopping garlic keeps the flavor sweet and milder. A garlic press presses the oil out of the garlic and gives it a much stronger flavor.
- Crushed Red Pepper Flakes: Friends don’t let friends make pasta dishes without a few sprinkles of red pepper flakes. The pizzaz it brings is irresistible.
- Fresh Rosemary: The backbone of this garlic rosemary sauce. Fresh is best, but you can use dried. The general rule for swapping dried herbs for fresh is to use 1/3 of the amount called for in the recipe. If the recipe calls for 1 tablespoon of fresh, then use 1 teaspoon of dried. There are 3 teaspoons in a tablespoon.
- Flat Leaf Parsley: Flat leaf parsley is always my choice for cooking. It has a more robust parsley flavor. I learned in Culinary School that curly parsley is mostly used in the restaurant industry to decorate a plate. And regarding dried parsley? I’ve got some in the pantry and I think it’s pretty much flavorless. I will sometimes use it to sprinkle on a sauced dish simply to make the presentation more interesting.
- Chickpeas: I love buying dried Colorado chickpeas from my local farmer’s market. They’re absolutely marvelous to make homemade hummus. Fresh dried chickpeas require the soaking and long cook routine. to keep this recipe weeknight easy friendly, canned is my choice. Drained and rinsed.
- Parmesan Cheese: Always buy a wedge of good quality parmesan cheese please. The flavor will always be superior from those pre-grated containers.
Recipe for Pasta and Chickpeas With Rosemary Garlic Sauce
All this pasta dish needs is a beautiful fresh green salad as a side dish, and you’re in business.
I hope you give this easy weeknight pasta recipe a try and if you do, please come back and give the recipe a star rating. And leave a comment about your experience with the recipe.
And if you have a favorite easy pasta dish, let me know, I’d love to give it a try.
More Easy Pasta Dinner Recipes
- Angel Hair Pasta with Asparagus and Lemon Cream Sauce simple and packed with amazing flavor. A wonderful way to enjoy your favorite spring ingredients.
- Fettuccini with Charred Lemon Sauce. Fresh Spinach, wilted in a charred lemon and wine sauce. Capers add a lovely zip of flavor for fettuccini.
Spinach Linguine with Garlic Rosemary Sauce and Chickpeas
Ingredients
- 1 pound Spinach Linguine or plain fettuccini.
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- 6 cloves garlic finely chopped
- 1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
- 1 tablespoon fresh rosemary finely chopped. Or 1 teaspoon dried rosemary.
- 1 tablespoon Italian flat-leaf parsley chopped
- 14 ounce chickpeas drained and rinsed
- Freshly grated Parmesan cheese
Instructions
- Cook pasta a pot of rapidly boiling salted water until al dente . About 8 – 10 minutes. Reserve one cup cooking water then drain.
- While pasta is cooking, heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Once the oil is hot, turn down the heat to medium low. Add the parsley and rosemary until fragrant. Add garlic, red pepper flakes and cook for about a minute or until garlic is fragrant.
- Add chickpeas and cook for another 3 minutes. Add reserved pasta water, 1/4 cup at a time until sauce is desired consistency.
- Add the cooked pasta and toss well.
- Garnish with plenty of fresh grated Parmesan Cheese.
Nutrition
Pasta with Chickpeas Recipe: Spinach Linguine with Garlic Rosemary Sauce … It’s What’s for Dinner.
