There's no shortage of delicious recipes at low costs on Budget Bytes, the wallet-friendly food blog run by Beth, who both comes up with clever recipes and acts as "number cruncher" for her readers. With every ingredient comes a price tag so people on a budget know exactly how much each meal will cost them if they choose to go through with it – a convenient additional feature that is missing from many other cooking blogs.
One of Beth's most popular pasta recipes is her spinach ricotta dish, which not only suits her financial concerns with an impressive $3.16 value, but is also easy to make and delicious to boot. There are no surprises in the ingredients list, but that doesn't make this recipe any less interesting – just one look at the dish is enough to get your lips smacking.
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1/2 lb. fettuccine (or other pasta)
2 tbsp olive oil
2 cloves garlic
1/2 cup milk
1 cup whole milk ricotta
1/4 tsp salt
Freshly cracked pepper
1/4 lb. frozen chopped spinach
2 tbsp olive oil
2 cloves garlic
1/2 cup milk
1 cup whole milk ricotta
1/4 tsp salt
Freshly cracked pepper
1/4 lb. frozen chopped spinach
Beth uses frozen spinach here for cost-effectiveness, and explains how squeezing the water out of the thawing spinach is important for the sauce to stick to the pasta later. Of course, you may use fresh spinach if you're not as strapped.
The second potential alteration you can consider concerns the pasta. Beth's choice of fettuccine makes for a delicious meal, but the length of the pasta can make it difficult for spinach and other ingredients to be correctly integrated into it. Beth made the bold choice to cut her noodles in half to allow for a more well-blended dish, but you're free to resort to a smaller type of pasta instead.
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Make sure to read Beth's full recipe over at Budget Bytes, and SHARE our article with your friends while you're at it!