White Bean and Sundried Tomato Pasta

Jeff the Chef

With wilted, garlic-lemon spinach

"White Bean and Sundried Tomato Pasta," from Make It Like a Man!

White Bean and Sundried Tomato Pasta with Wilted, Garlic-Lemon Spinach is even more delicious than it sounds, and it’s so satisfying. Extremely guest-worthy!

What you need for 6 servings:

1 lb. dried cannellini beans
1 Tbs salt, plus more, to taste
1 tsp chicken stock paste (or bouillon)
1 Tbs olive oil
1 cup chopped onion
2 tsp minced garlic, divided
1 tsp dried thyme
1 tsp dried basil
1 jar (8 oz.) sundried tomatoes, strained and chopped
1 lb. penne (or similar) pasta
2 lbs. fresh spinach
Fresh lemon juice, to taste
Crusty Italian bread, for serving

How to do it:

  1. Cover beans with a couple inches of water. Add 1 Tbs salt (or less, to taste). Cover the pot. Cook over medium-high heat until the water begins to boil, about 15 minutes. Reduce heat to lowest setting and cook until beans are al dente, 1¾ hours. Strain the beans, reserving the cooking liquid. Measure out 1¼ cups of the cooking liquid, and to it, add the chicken stock paste.
"White Bean and Sundried Tomato Pasta," from Make It Like a Man!

You can used canned beans. In that case, you will substitute straight-up chicken stock for the chicken-bean mixture described below, and the liquid from the can for the plain bean liquid. You may need additional stock.

  1. Heat the oil in a large casserole. Add the onions, and cook until they are just beginning to turn translucent, 3 minutes. Add half the garlic; cook 1 minute more.
  2. Add 3 cups of the beans (repurpose the rest), 1 cup of the chicken stock mixture, 1½ cups of the plain bean cooking liquid, thyme, and basil to the pot. Cook at a moderate simmer for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Meanwhile, bring water to a boil for the pasta.
  3. Add the tomatoes to the bean mixture, and cook at lively simmer until the mixture is thick and sauce-like, about 5 minutes. Off heat; keep warm.
  4. Cook the pasta to al dente. Meanwhile, place half of the spinach in a very large soup pot. Wilt it for about 1 minute over high heat, turning the spinach with a large spoon or spatula. Add remaining spinach and continue to wilt. Off heat just as the spinach is just shy of fully wilted, and let residual pan heat take it the rest of the way. Stir in a splash of the remaining chicken stock mixture, to taste. Add remaining garlic, a splash of lemon juice, and salt to taste.

After the spinach is fully wilted, it will begin to give off a lot of liquid if you continue to cook it. You want to off the heat just before the spinach is fully wilted, so that the residual pan heat takes the spinach to the fully-cooked point, producing a minimal amount of liquid. This will take more-or-less constant attention.

You may have leftover chicken stock mixture. If you want to warm up leftovers, you’ll need it to replace the liquid that the pasta eventually soaks up. You need to add a good deal of liquid to the leftovers … perhaps two tablespoons per serving.

  1. Strain the pasta and add it to the sauce. Serve immediately by ladling pasta into bowl and topping it with a serving of spinach, accompanied by bread.
"White Bean and Sundried Tomato Pasta," from Make It Like a Man!

If there is a trick to this recipe, it’s starting with dried beans, and fully seasoning them and their cooking liquid. This can be done days in advance.

Canned beans offer a shortcut, but dried beans will offer you more control over the beans’ texture, and the opportunity to use the cooking liquid – which delivers depth and substance to the finished dish.

It may be easy to find excellent Italian bread in your local market. Buy it the same day you want to serve this pasta, because day-old Italian bread is often unappealing. If you want to make your own, I suggest this recipe at Spiced. 

This pasta goes equally well with white or red wine.

With some minor adjustments, you could turn this pasta into a wonderful soup.

White Bean and Sundried Tomato Pasta

Credit for images on this page: Make It Like a Man!, unless otherwise indicated. Thank you, Kesor. This content was not solicited by anyone, nor was it written in exchange for anything.

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54 thoughts on “White Bean and Sundried Tomato Pasta”

  1. This is fabulous. I’ve always loved adding beans to pasta, which most likely I learned from an Italian cookbook. And sun-dried tomatoes are fabulous. I just discovered half-dry tomatoes from a Gordon Ramsay video. they’re really good too!
    Chef Mimi recently posted…Torta di Pomodoro

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  4. You’re inspiring me to stop being lazy, and start making my beans from scratch! They really do taste so much better, and when a delicious recipe like this pasta comes out of it, it’s an easy decision. This is a dish my whole family would go nuts over. Absolutely delicious!

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    • You know, I’m not quite sure how I fell into dried beans. I think it’s more of a philosophical statement than anything else. They’re cheaper, but it’s not like a can of beans will break the bank. They’re also less processed, which on the one hand is important to me … but on the other hand, I love a Quarter Pounder. I think if there’s anything that really makes a difference, its that you can work with dried beans and have them not turn into total mush. But total mush would be perfect for this dish! So grab that can!

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  6. Why thank you for the call-out on the Italian bread, Jeff! That’s a true honor. 🙂 This pasta dish sounds nice and easy, but still fancy. It reminds me a bit of a white bean dish that we had in Italy years ago – although that version was all white beans and no pasta. This is the epitome of comfort food!
    David @ Spiced recently posted…Strawberry Champagne Jam

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  8. I like to keep a bag of cooked beans in the freezer so this recipe sounds like a no-brainer to me. The beans would add such a creamy texture. You were probably trying to keep this dish meat-free but some crumbled sausage sounds like an excellent addition.
    Eva Taylor recently posted…Warm Spinach and Artichoke Dip

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    • Thanks, John. Right now, it’s 12 degrees … and that’s much better than yesterday! So yes, some comfort food is in order.

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    • Once you’ve got the beans, you really can throw this together quickly. Enjoy!

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  14. I could eat pasta every day of the week. I think this looks so good and like something my whole family would love. I like the idea of adding my own elements to turn it into a soup as well. Would be so good with the crusty Italian bread you suggest!

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  17. A perfect dish for me. I love the combination of pasta and beans and I’m with you regarding using home-cooked beans. I’ve even frozen my home-cooked and used in pasta. There not as good as fresh-cooked, but better than canned.
    Pair the pasta and beans with the delicious-sounding sauce you’ve given us makes for a great dish and I agree it would make a yummy soup as well…
    Ron recently posted…Four Years Blogging, a look back…

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    • Thanks, Ron! I think that freezing beans is a great idea! I have a friend – and she’s one of the best cooks I know – who freezes a lot of things like that, and has an incredibly organized freezer in her basement. I, unfortunately, have an empty chest freezer that’s been sitting in the garage for years. 🙁

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  25. I have to admit that I have never had beans with pasta. From your assurances, to those of Mimi, John, and Ron, I am going to have to try this. What I love about dishes like this is that they make entertaining easy – and flavorful!

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    • Very true. And it’s always nice to serve something that your guests haven’t had. The beans get really creamy in this dish, which is what makes them so nice with the pasta.

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    • Thank you, Karen! It was kind of a coincidence, actually … but it turned out to be really good!

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