Pancetta and spinach gigli pasta with pecorino cheese

/ Haruka Sugiyama

Description: Enjoyable pasta not only for its amazing taste but also cute appearance. On top of that, spinach boosts the nutritional value of the dish. If you find a funny shape of pasta, you can try it. We eat pasta with our eyes too. If you don’t have any funny shapes, of course, you can use a typical shape such as penne.
Serves: 2
Cooking time: 25 minutes

Ingredients

  • Pasta – 160g
  • Pancetta – 100g
  • Pecorino cheese – 40g
  • Garlic – chopped in fine pieces, 2 cloves
  • Spinach – 100g
  • Sage (dry) – 1 teaspoon
  • Ground black pepper – 2 dashes
  • Olive oil – ½ tablespoon

Method

1. Cook the pasta until al dente in plenty of boiling water with salt.
2. Meanwhile, heat a large non-stick frying pan and fry the garlic and pancetta. 
3. Stir in the spinach and sage to the pan and fry for a few minutes.
4. Add hot drained pasta and olive oil to the pan and mix well.
5. Add pecorino cheese and ground black pepper, then mix well.

To serve: sprinkle additional black pepper or/and salt according to personal preference.

Nutritional Values Per Serving

KcalProteinFatCarbsFibreSugarsSaltSaturated FatFolateVitamin A (RAE)Vitamin
E
586.126.4g24.5g60.0g4.2g3.5g2.3g12.7g98.1μg235.6μg1.0mg
29.3%52.9%35.0%23.1%14.0%3.8%38.0%63.6%49.0%39.3%34.8%
*These values are approximate and based on the value from ingredients prepared before cooking (Reference USDA). Percent daily values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet. Your daily values may vary depending on your calorie needs. The values for “Waitrose Cooks’ Ingredients Italian smoked pancetta” was used for this recipe. Iron, Magnesium and Vitamin B6 are over 10%, Phosphorus is over 20%, Calcium and Vitamin C are over 30% of an adult’s daily reference intake. However, some Vitamin C may be lost while cooking. RAE=Retinol Activity Equivalents 

Nutritional Tips

Gigli pasta has a corn shape with a ruffle top and it means lilies in Italian. Indeed it looks like a flower shape. Its origin is Florence, Tuscany in Italy. It is hard to find this, but if you find it by any chance, you may try it with some thick pasta sauce recipes such as ragu or cream sauce as well. 

In general, green leafy vegetables are low in calories due to the nature of composition (very high content of water) and relatively high in micronutrients (Darmon et al. Journal of the American Dietetic Association, 2005 Dec;105(12):1881-7). Spinach is rich in vitamin A, and folate and a good source of magnesium. It only contains 23 kcal per 100g. It is also a good source of Lutein, which is a carotenoid and it does the job in our macula lutea (centre of the retina). I could say spinach is one of the superfoods like mushrooms.

Spinach is versatile and it is delicious either on its own or in other dishes. When cooked, it reduces its size massively. Therefore, it is easy to take a lot of nutrients in one dish without boosting calories. It can be added to salad without cooking, pasta, soup, sauté, omelette, quiche, soba, miso soup and many more. I will introduce more recipes with spinach in the future.

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