Once upon a time I asked my husband for a Dutch Oven for Christmas. Do I need ONE more pot? Probably not. But I couldn’t resist the thought of cooking up a delicious roast in the oven with a pretty colored, straight-out-of-a-magazine looking Dutch Oven. However, instead of getting the Dutch Oven I got a….wait for it…. a cheese shredder and a dish drying rack from Walmart!*insert sarcastically excited emoji here* The best part about this is we never go to Walmart. Like ever. Everything about that place irks both of us, so how he ended up there shopping for me for Christmas is beyond me. *insert confused emoji here*
Ok, so he tried. I’ll give him that. Heck, he even braved the busted carts and weird people at Walmart! But really? A dish drying rack for Christmas? Ok, so long story short I ended up with a beautiful, photo-worthy Dutch Oven anyway, thanks to a gift card from my Grandmother and my heckling skills at Boscov’s. I used it today for this One Pot Italian Pasta and it was just glorious! Husband officially forgiven for his random Walmart presents! 
As I was putting this One Pot wonder together today I just couldn’t help but marvel at the deliciousness that was about to happen + wholesome, healthy ingredients! This beautiful pot includes:
- 100% whole wheat linguini
- mushrooms
- cherry tomatoes
- strained tomatoes
- spinach
- fresh basil
Big plus: This recipe is completely customizable! Don’t have spinach? No problem. Hate cherry tomatoes. Leave them out! Want to sub something else? Give it a try! Want to force more greens on your family? Double the spinach. Is there anything this pot can’t do?
……And then that huge picture happened.
Cooking Tips and Techniques (Full recipe below)
- Biggest tip: Must stir pot while pasta is cooking! I’ve made a few one potters before and didn’t need to stir as much as I did with this one. Not sure what was making things stick, but I was stirring frequently. It is worth it though!
- This recipe makes a fairly large batch. If you are cooking for a family this should be enough for 4+ people with leftovers. If you are cooking for just 1-2 people I’d suggest halving the recipe.
- Beef, mushrooms, and garlic are browned first then everything else is added.
- I use Bionaturae strained tomatoes because they come in glass jars. If you can’t find this product I would suggest subbing a 15 ounce can of whole tomatoes in juice and crushing them before adding them to your pot with juice included.
- Depending upon what stock/tomatoes you use (I used no salt added tomatoes and low sodium homemade stock) you may need to adjust your salt. I would suggest starting with 1/4 tsp and adding more as you go if you are using any products that are salted. I used about 3/4 tsp of kosher salt, but like I said I was starting with a pretty bland base.
- And that’s all folks!
*Here is a link to the tomato product I use. Price is based upon bulk quantity.
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