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    Home » Main Dishes » Pasta

    20-Minute Green Spaghetti Sauce

    5 from 7 votes
    Published by Rebecca Eisenberg ⁠— July 1, 2021 (updated September 17, 2021) — 13 Comments

    194 shares
    Jump to Recipe Jump to Video

    This post may contain affiliate links

    green spaghetti sauce

    This spinach-and-ricotta sauce gets the name "green spaghetti sauce" because, well, that's what it looks like. It's a riff on a Pasta Verde recipe from the Moosewood Cookbook.

    A silky green sauce packed with lots of spinach, fresh herbs, cheese, and the best part is it only takes a few minutes to make!

    Two shallow white bowls sit on a marble counter top. One is in the bottom center of the frame and is filled with a pile of fettucini noodles coated in green spaghetti sauce. the other bowl is in the top left, cropped slightly out of frame and has bare noodles with green sauce ladled overtop. Both dishes of pasta verde are topped with toasted slivered almonds and finely grated pecorino cheese.

    Unlike my make ahead classic spaghetti & meatballs with sausage recipe which is super cozy in the winter, this green "spaghetti sauce" is packed with fresh greens and perfect for summertime!

    About Green Spaghetti Sauce

    Pasta Verde was a childhood favorite, though I knew it by it's more-fun nickname: Green Spaghetti Sauce.

    My mom used to make this green spaghetti sauce all the time when I was growing up. She got it from one of the Moosewood cookbooks, where it's called "Pasta Verde."

    In our house it was known as “green spaghetti sauce,” probably because kids don’t get super excited about something called “pasta verde” and even less excited about something called "spinach pasta sauce."

    I don't like spinach, but I do like this sauce.

    It's unfortunate that I spent a decade not making this because I so associated it with being a "kid" meal that it never occurred to me to make it as an adult. But I dug the recipe out a few years ago, after Smitten Kitchen posted a recipe for making homemade spinach pasta because I thought they'd go well together (they do!).

    The sauce was good but didn't have quite as much flavor as its vibrant green color suggested, so I did some tinkering to make it more interesting to my adult palette.

    I've added Pecorino Romano cheese, doubled the amount of basil, upped the garlic quantity, and used freshly grated nutmeg instead of the pre-ground stuff. I also replaced 4 ounces of the ricotta with goat cheese, for an even smoother, richer, and creamier texture.

    A heavier handed squeeze of lemon juice plus fresh parsley add hints of brightness and freshness, and the crunch of the toasted almonds sprinkled on top adds a nice bit of textural variety.

    a bowl of green spaghetti sauce poured overtop bare noodles and topped with parmesan cheese and almond slivers
    Before wilting
    a close up of fettuccini pasta coated in green spaghetti sauce in a shallow white bowl. it is topped with parmesan cheese and toasted almond slivers.

    Ingredients

    Here's what you'll need to make green spaghetti sauce. See recipe card (at the end of the post) for quantities.

    all of the ingredients measured and labeled.
    • Spinach - Baby spinach or adult spinach (regular spinach? normie spinach?) whatever you call it will work.
    • Ricotta cheese - I like Galbani's full fat/whole milk ricotta, but skim ricotta will work too.
    • Goat cheese - One log of plain goat cheese, or 4 ounces of fresh homemade goat cheese.
    • Olive oil - For sautéing the spinach, garlic, and onion.
    • Onion - White or yellow onion. I've provided a weight measurement, but you're looking for a medium sized onion, maybe the size of a baseball.
    • Garlic - I usually grate it on a Microplane zester, but you can mince, use a garlic press, or even the jarred stuff if that's your preference.
    • Lemon juice - From half a lemon. You can use the bottled stuff if you prefer.
    • Dried basil - I use this because it's easiest to have on hand year-round, but you could totally throw some fresh basil leaves in if you wanted, too.
    • Fresh parsley - The dried stuff just won't give you the same bright, fresh, slightly grassy herby flavor!
    • Nutmeg - I always recommend grating it fresh on a microplane zester. I buy it from Spicewalla — a small tin will last you for YEARS and won't lose flavor as quickly as pre-ground nutmeg will.
    • Salt and pepper - Season to taste!
    • Pecorino Romano - I like adding this because it adds some complexity to the cheese flavor, bringing a nice sharp nuttiness to the mix.
    • Slivered almonds - Toasted and served as a garnish on top. These add some really nice crunch, and work nicely with the pecorino and nutmeg to bring those toasty, nutty flavors to the surface in a really nice way.

    You'll also need pasta — whatever shape you prefer! I like fettuccini, linguini, or even a fancy long pasta shape like mafaldine with green spaghetti sauce but it's also great with rigatoni or penne or any other pasta shapes you like.

    How to Make Green Spaghetti Saue

    One of the best things about green spaghetti sauce is just how quickly it comes together. Who doesn't love a good dinner-by-way-of-blender moment?

    Boiling your pasta is probably the longest step of the whole process. Other than that you're just sautéing onions, wilting spinach, and then dumping your onions and spinach into a blender with the rest of the ingredients and letting the blender do the hard work for you. Dinner, done!

    If you're really craving a protein with this dish, pick one with a bit of salt, like bacon, sausage, pancetta. Something plain like chicken will be too bland.

    Use the skillet you used to wilt the spinach to cook your protein (no extra dishes!). Then add it to the noodles when you toss them in the sauce or crumble it over the top with the almonds.

    Use a Good Blender for Best Results

    I've made green spaghetti sauce with a two different blenders over the years. The first was a $30, 12-speed model that worked fine, but stopped short of fully liquifying the sauce.

    Green spaghetti sauce made in that blender was paler and had visible flecks of dark green spinach, parsley, and dried herbs throughout. It had a little more texture to it because the blender couldn't fully liquify the sauce.

    That all changed with my shiny Vitamix 5200. (This is not sponsored, I paid for it with my own money, and I wouldn't recommend it if I didn't genuinely love it.)

    green spaghetti sauce in a vitamix blender
    Just getting started.

    The blender I have now is a diesel af Vitamix 5200 which absolutely pulverizes anything you put in it. It completely breaks up all the ingredients, producing a smooth, bright green, fully emulsified sauce with no visible flecks. (I wrote more about the Vitamix in my post about kitchen tools over $100.)

    This isn't to say that you need a monster blender in order to make this recipe. People have been making green spaghetti sauce long before super-powerful home blenders were on the market. It will work for you regardless.

    But if you're thinking of getting a new blender — look for one that at least has a "liquify" setting. You'll get a much silkier, smoother sauce that way.

    a close up of green spaghetti sauce coated pasta in a shallow white bowl topped with parmesan cheese and slivered almonds

    A note for parents of small children (and messy adult eaters)

    My mom always called green spaghetti sauce a "before bath dinner" because of it's unique ability to get literally everywhere. Your kids will probably love it, but the mess it makes is legit.

    Be prepared with bibs, hats, rain ponchos, drop clothes, etc. if serving it to tiny humans who don't appreciate how much you spent on that carpet, goddammit.

    Even making it now, as a childless adult, I'm consistently surprised at how intent the sauce is at getting on everything. Hand-wash your blender/any bowls you use to make this. Even after a trip through the dishwasher, you’re likely to find flecks of spinach on all your other plates. 

    an overhead shot of fettuccini pasta coated in green spaghetti sauce in the center of a shallow white bowl topped with parmesan and toasted almond slivers

    Storage

    Green spaghetti sauce is best eaten same day. You can maybe get an extra night out of it if you refrigerate it.

    To reheat, use a double boiler or toss the cold sauce with hot pasta to warm it up. If you try to microwave green spaghetti sauce the cheese will curdle and the sauce will separate. It's not a pleasant texture!

    If you've refrigerated the pasta with the sauce on, toss it in a pan with a bit of oil and stir until it warms up.

    Practical Tips & Recipe Notes

    • You can absolutely use baby spinach instead of regular spinach in this recipe.
    • You can even use other leafy greens! You might need to adjust the other ingredients to taste depending on what greens you use. I often use green spaghetti sauce as an excuse to use up other fresh herbs I have around — you can certainly add fresh basil, some kale, or even arugula to your green spaghetti sauce.
    • The original recipe used all ricotta and no goat cheese. If you're averse to goat cheese you can absolutely replace it with more ricotta cheese!

    📖 Recipe

    an overhead shot of fettuccini pasta coated in green spaghetti sauce in the center of a shallow white bowl topped with parmesan and toasted almond slivers

    20-Minute Green Spaghetti Sauce (Pasta Verde)

    Rebecca Eisenberg
    This spinach and cheese sauce gets the name "green spaghetti sauce" because, well, that's what it looks like. It's a riff on a Pasta Verde recipe from the Moosewood Cookbook. A silky green sauce packed with lots of spinach, fresh herbs, cheese, and the best part is it only takes a few minutes to make!
    5 from 7 votes
    Print Recipe Pin Recipe Save Saved! Email
    Prep Time 5 minutes mins
    Cook Time 15 minutes mins
    Total Time 20 minutes mins
    Course Main Course
    Cuisine Italian
    Servings 4 people

    Equipment

    • Blender
    • Microplane Zester
    • Salad spinner

    Ingredients
      

    • 2 tablespoons olive oil
    • 130 grams onion (¾ cup, chopped)
    • 2 cloves garlic (minced)
    • 100 grams raw spinach (about 3½ cups, packed)
    • 140 grams ricotta cheese (a heaping ¼ cup)
    • 113 grams goat cheese (one small log)
    • ½ cup fresh parsley (roughly chopped)
    • 1 tablespoon lemon juice (about half a small lemon)
    • 2 teaspoons dried basil
    • ¼ teaspoon whole nutmeg (freshly grated, always!)
    • ¼ teaspoon black pepper
    • ½ teaspoon salt (or more, to taste)
    • 10 grams Pecorino Romano (¼ cup, finely grated)
    • ½ cup slivered almonds (toasted)

    Optional

    • 4 ounces goat cheese (to replace 4 ounces ricotta)
    Prevent your screen from going dark

    Instructions
     

    • Preheat the oven or toaster oven to 350°F. Rinse the spinach in a colander or salad spinner and set it aside, don't worry about getting it too dry.
    • Bring a pot of water to a rolling boil in on the stove and cook pasta according to package directions.
    • While the pasta cooks, sauté onions and garlic in oil over medium-low heat until onions are translucent.
    • Tear the still-damp spinach into large pieces, and add it to the skillet with the onions and garlic. Reduce heat to low, cover pan and allow spinach to wilt, about 3-4 minutes.
    • Toast the almonds on a sheet pan in the oven oven for 5-10 minutes, stirring occasionally). Remove to a small bowl.
    • While the spinach wilts and the almonds toast, add the remaining sauce ingredients to the bowl of your blender. When spinach is wilted, but still very bright green, add it to the blender bowl and puree until very smooth. Taste and add salt or additional lemon juice if needed.
    • Strain the pasta into a colander, than add it back to the empty pot. Toss with the green spaghetti sauce to coat (or serve the sauce ladled over the pasta separately).
      Top the bowls with more grated Pecorino Romano and lots of crunchy toasted almonds to serve.

    RECIPE NOTES

    • If you’re really craving protein, pick one with some salt, like ground hot Italian sausage, bacon, or pancetta. 
    • If you make enough for leftovers, the best way to reheat the sauce is in a double boiler (to avoid curdling), or by tossing it with hot pasta and letting the pasta heat up the sauce. You could also serve it cold on crackers or on bread, tbh (maybe in a grilled cheese of some sort?).
    • It’s best to hand-wash your blender/food processor/any bowls you use to make this, because the green sauce is pretty stubborn. Even after a thorough trip through the dishwasher, you’ll find flecks of spinach on all your other plates. 
    • Recipe adapted from The Moosewood Cookbook.

    YOUR NOTES

    Click here to add your own private notes. Only you can see these.
    Tried this recipe?Leave a comment and let me how it was!

    This post was originally published on 8/23/2019.

    PastaUnder 30 MinutesVegetarian
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    Reader Interactions

    Comments

      5 from 7 votes (3 ratings without comment)

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      Recipe Rating




    1. Patricia

      May 11, 2021 at 10:11 pm

      I made this for dinner tonight and my husband and I loved it!

      Reply
      • Rebecca

        May 11, 2021 at 10:12 pm

        I’m so glad to hear that!!! 💕 thanks for leaving a comment!

        Reply
        • Lori

          December 23, 2022 at 3:42 pm

          About how much pasta will this recipe cover - 1 lb?

          Reply
          • Rebecca Eisenberg

            December 24, 2022 at 9:35 am

            It will definitely be enough for a pound of pasta! Maybe a little bit more even.

            Reply
    2. Leann

      May 14, 2021 at 7:59 pm

      5 stars
      When I first tried this sauce, I wasn't totally sold on it. However, it came ALIVE with the pecorino (which I now keep in our fridge after discovering and falling in love with The Practical Kitchen's/Rebecca's cacio e pepe recipe). Now that dinner is over, I keep thinking about how much I enjoyed this bright, bright green sauce. It was fresh, creamy, herbal, and just as messy as the recipe promises. I'm looking forward to the leftovers for lunch, and I'll definitely add this to the rotation!

      Reply
      • Rebecca

        May 14, 2021 at 8:01 pm

        Yessssss pecorino makes a HUGE difference! I used to think it was just a fancy version of parm but once I learned how different they are and how to use them together I now also keep both in the fridge. For emergencies!! 😂

        Reply
    3. Ellen K

      August 29, 2023 at 11:00 am

      My husband sent me this recipe but he doesn't like goat cheese. Can I double the amount of ricotta or do you have another suggestion?

      Reply
      • Rebecca Eisenberg

        August 29, 2023 at 11:09 am

        So funny you ask — the original recipe didn't have any goat cheese and uses ricotta! But since I don't love ricotta and I do love goat cheese, I subbed in goat cheese in place of some of the ricotta. So yes, you can absolutely skip the goat cheese and do an additional 4 oz ricotta instead. Your husband will love it. Enjoy!

        Reply
        • Ellen K

          August 30, 2023 at 2:43 pm

          5 stars
          We ALL enjoyed it! I did add in a little pasta water to make it less thick and saved some of the pasta water to warm it up with next day!

          Reply
    4. Marni

      March 05, 2024 at 2:07 pm

      Question. I notice you've given an all-goat-cheese option at the end in lieu of ricotta. If you cannot stand goat cheese, do you just sub in ricotta in the same quantity? Thanks!

      Reply
      • Rebecca Eisenberg

        March 05, 2024 at 2:08 pm

        Absolutely!

        Reply
    5. DeeDee

      May 10, 2024 at 5:41 pm

      5 stars
      I've made this a few times and it's always a hit with the family. We prefer it with all ricotta. The last time I made it, I saved the scant cup left after topping a pound of pasta and used it to sauce pizza the next day. That was a huge hit! I topped the pizza with a sprinkle of mozzarella and dollops of ricotta mixed with pecorino and crushed red pepper. It was a great way to use up the last little bit of sauce. Highly recommend!

      Reply
    6. Monette

      March 17, 2025 at 9:52 pm

      5 stars
      A friend recommended this to me, and I'm so glad she did! Delicious! That same friend brought it on a Girl's Weekend and we ate the whole thing as a dip for veggies. Wow! Fantastic flavor and so healthy!

      Reply

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