on spinach artichoke pasta...

I don't know about you but I love pasta. And what about spinach artichoke dip? Well, my friend whenever I'm at a shindig and spinach artichoke dip is being served for an appetizer well lets just say I hover. For reals! So good. Pasta meets dip. It's a win win folks!
For a while now my stomach hasn't been able to tolerate red sauce so looking for new pasta recipes has been my goal as of late. When I came across this fun pasta dish I had to try it. 

Start out with 2 tablespoons of olive oil. Mince 2 cloves of garlic and cook it in the oil. Make sure the heat is on medium otherwise the garlic will go up in flames. Slight exaggeration but you get the point. Next add 1/2 a bar of cream cheese or about 4 oz, 1/2 cup of sour cream & 1/4 cup of white cooking wine. Reduce the heat so it doesn't bubble too much and stir until texture is creamy. 

Next add 1/2 cup of milk & 1/2 cup of grated parmesan. Once melted time to add spinach. You can go ahead and use fresh spinach or just the frozen block of spinach. I used the frozen because I wasn't quite sure when I was going to whip this recipe up. If you are using the frozen make sure it is completely thawed out and also drained. Frozen spinach really releases a lot of water. Dump one package or about 10 oz. of spinach right into the white cream sauce. Mean while chop up one 14 oz can of quartered artichokes in water. I keep nice sized chunks because it makes me giddy when I get a bite of one! Bliss. Let everything cook for about ten minutes or until it starts to bubble. 

Put bow tie pasta (or whatever pasta tickles your fancy) in a dutch oven and simply pour spinach & artichoke white sauce right over the pasta. Mix well and your done...Unless your like me and like to set it in the oven for another ten minutes with some shredded mozzarella cheese on top and wait until the cheese is brown and everything is all bubbly. But that's just me :) 

Oh and don't forget the garlic bread!! So what do you think? Quick and easy and it really only took me like 20 minutes to knock it out. Hubby loved it. And it's really almost like your forking spinach & artichoke dip right into your mouth, without the mayo & a slightly healthier version. MmmMmm. 

By the way, this recipe is brought to you by Budget Bytes. One of my recent finds. This.Chick.Is.God! Awesome recipes with a budget in mind. Best yet, she breaks every ingredient down by cost as well as the cost of the meal itself. The is pure passion right there gems. Check her out and makes some pasta! 

♥A.