Mafalde might just be my favourite shape of pasta ever, and it’s shown off beautifully in this luxuriously glossy spinach and goat cheese sauce. On the table in just 15 minutes (!), this quick and easy pasta dish is made extra special with fresh garlic, toasted pine nuts and soft, creamy goat cheese.
I love a quick dinner – after a long day, who wants to spend more time than necessary standing around in the kitchen? This mafalde pasta with spinach and goat cheese takes no time at all to prepare, with the sauce being prepared as the pasta is cooking, and it’s undeniably delicious.
The sauce is made by melting down soft goat cheese, which creates an irresistibly smooth, silky sauce that lightly coats the pasta noodles.
And much like my other creamy pasta recipes, this one can be adapted to use whatever vegetables you have in the fridge or freezer!
❤️ Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- It can be on the table in just 15 minutes!
- It’s just as appropriate for a busy weeknight as it is for a fancy date with your partner
- It uses just a few simple ingredients
- It can easily be adapted to use whatever vegetables you have in the house
🥗 Ingredients
Here’s what you’ll need to make this simple creamy pasta dish:
- mafalde pasta. I love mafalde as it has more of a bite to it than some smaller pasta shapes, but of course, any other shape of pasta will also taste great in the creamy goat cheese sauce.
- goat cheese. Make sure you choose a soft and creamy goat cheese, not a hard one, as this will be best for the glossy goat cheese sauce.
- parmesan cheese. You’ll need to choose a vegetarian version here. ‘Real’ parmesan is actually made with animal rennet, but I find that most generic ‘Italian hard cheeses’ are vegetarian. Bonus – they’re usually cheaper too! You can buy it pre-grated, or grate it yourself.
- spinach. I used frozen spinach, but fresh spinach will work just fine too.
- garlic. A good rule of thumb is to use one clove of garlic per portion, but you can certainly increase this if you’re a big fan of garlicky food!
- pesto. Basil pesto is ideal for this dish. You can use homemade or shop-bought.
- pine nuts. You can eat pine nuts as they come, but I definitely recommend toasting them, as detailed below, as it improves the flavour immeasurably.
See the printable recipe card below for detailed ingredient quantities.
👩🏻🍳 Ingredient Swaps
As with most of my recipes, this creamy pasta recipe is so easy to customise.
Here are a few ways you could adapt this recipe to suit you better:
- Swap the spinach for whatever other vegetables you have in the fridge or freezer. Pretty much anything will work – just be aware that a harder vegetable will take longer to cook. I’d recommend trying vegetables like peppers, mushrooms or asparagus, which can all cook very quickly in a frying pan.
- If you’re not a fan of goat cheese, try using another soft, melty cheese instead. Blue cheese, ricotta, mascarpone, or cream cheese should work nicely.
- Experiment with using different types of pesto (such as tomato pesto, for example). You could even swap it for fresh herbs instead.
📋 Instructions
Here’s how to make this creamy mafalde pasta recipe.
Step 1: Begin to boil the pasta in plenty of water.
Step 2: While the pasta is cooking, fry off the spinach and garlic together. You can use a splash of oil if needed, but you might find it’s not necessary, especially if you’re using frozen spinach, as the water it releases is usually enough to prevent it from sticking.
Step 3: Add the goat cheese, parmesan and pesto to the pan, along with plenty of black pepper. Allow the cheese to melt down to create the smooth, glossy sauce. If the sauce seems too thick, add a splash of water to loosen it up a little.
Step 4: Toast the pine nuts in a dry frying pan. They only take a few minutes, and once they start to brown, they can turn quickly, so keep a close eye on them to prevent burning!
If you want, you can toast a few extra pine nuts, and save them to use up over the next couple of days. I love scattering them over salads and soups, crouton-style, like I did with this creamy mushroom soup.
Step 5: Add the cooked pasta to the sauce, along with the toasted pine nuts, and mix to combine.
I find a pair of tongs is the easiest way to toss pasta in sauce – I recommend ones with silicone tips, like these ones from Amazon US / Amazon UK, as they won’t scratch your non-stick pans.
