Gorgonzola Pasta with Spinach, Cream and Walnuts
Fettuccine with gorgonzola, young spinach, cream and walnuts is a wonderful Italian dish that makes a great breakfast and cooks quickly and easily. Usually it is made with long flat pasta, most often fettuccine, but wider tagliatelle and even spaghetti will work too. The delicate sauce, where the gorgonzola comes through clearly, and its pleasant greenish tint from the cream and spinach make the dish instantly recognizable. By the way, people often write “gorgondzola” and “fetuchine”, while the Italian spelling is Gorgonzola and fettuccine.
Ingredients
2 servings
- Fettuccine or tagliatelle 200 g
- Water for cooking the pasta 2 l
- Salt for the pasta water 5 g per 1 l of water
- Gorgonzola 150 g
- Spinach 1 bunch
- Cream (15-20%) 200 ml
- Walnuts (shelled) 50 g
- Butter 1 tbsp
- Salt to taste
Step-by-step recipe
As it turns out, gorgonzola pasta has a very delicate taste and aroma. The sauce is quite thick and clings well to long pasta, so choose fettuccine, tagliatelle, or maybe linguine. If gorgonzola is hard to find, you can use another blue cheese. Gorgonzola itself also varies: soft or firmer, with more or fewer blue veins, sharp or mild in flavor.
Buy fresh shelled walnuts, since last year’s tend to taste a little rancid. Toast the nuts in a dry hot frying pan until they smell strongly nutty, then move them to a separate saucer. In the same pan, heat a piece of butter and pour in the cream. When it starts to boil, add the walnuts and the grated or mashed gorgonzola.
Meanwhile, tear the tough stems off the spinach, chop the leaves with a knife and put them in a bowl. Pour boiling water over the spinach for 1-2 minutes, then rinse with cold water and squeeze out lightly. Purée the leaves with an immersion blender until smooth. For better blending, you can add 1-2 tbsp of milk or cream to the leaves. Pour the green purée into the cream and add just a little salt.
Stirring constantly, bring the sauce to the start of a boil, reduce the heat to the minimum and keep cooking until it thickens slightly. By the way, you can adjust the thickness with extra gorgonzola, which will only make the pasta tastier. The sauce usually takes 5-7 minutes.
While the sauce cooks, boil the pasta. Depending on the type, it can take 6 to 10 minutes, so check the package. Fresh homemade pasta usually takes 4-5 minutes. Drain the cooked pasta in a colander and combine it with the sauce. If the sauce is too thick, add a little of the pasta water. Toss the fettuccine and sauce together very thoroughly.
Divide the pasta among plates, sprinkle with a little finely grated cheese and, if you like, add a few more walnuts and a sprig of greens. Serve right away, as it is best hot. Make portions for a single meal; reheating the pasta is not a good idea.
If you like, you can replace the cream with milk and adjust the thickness of the sauce with extra gorgonzola. Often leeks or shallots are sautéed before the cream goes in. Besides salt, nutmeg and black pepper are often added, as you prefer. I once also came across a version that used ground allspice.
Calories and macros
1055 kcal
Serving ≈ 360 g
- Protein37 g14% of kcal
- Fat64 g55% of kcal
- Carbs79 g30% of kcal
100 g295 kcalProtein 10.5 gFat 18 gCarbs 22.3 g
Calculated from the recipe ingredients, excluding salt and spices. Data: USDA and Matvaretabellen.
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