Spinach, tomatoes, and garlic, oh my! 🍅🥬🧄 This combination sautéed together with onions, basil, white wine and a sprinkling of cheese, makes the perfect topper for grilled chicken, fish or portobellos, but it’s also a fantastic side dish all by itself. Once you taste it, you might agree with us that it’s the perfect beginning to a light summer lasagna! Look for that soon! 👀
We always been a huge fans of creamed spinach — any way shape and form, and this fun and fresh version, made with cherry tomatoes, onions, garlic and grated Pecorino Romano cheese, is a healthier no-cream version. We originally made this recipe with heavy cream, and loved it, but it was really rich. So the next time, we omitted the cream and instead added Boursin cheese and really enjoyed it that way too, but still wanted something less rich. So, finally we decided to try it using only broth and wine. This recipe is the latest rendition and we are really happy with the results.
If you’ve ever sautéed spinach, you know how much it reduces as it cooks. It seems like you have a mountain of spinach, but by the time you finish sautéing it, it’s barely an ant hill! So we started with a full pound of raw spinach and still, it only served four people. This topper is not really saucy, but rather more like a veggie sauté, and if you want it to be more of a sauce, you can add more broth as you go. Also, if you like a little more of the fresh green spinach color, just barely sauté the last bit of spinach you toss into the pan and it will stay more firm and green, giving the topping a nice color.
One key to making this dish taste so delicious, is to cook the garlic in hot oil over medium-high heat for the first 30 seconds or so, just so it has time to bloom the flavors, before adding the next ingredients. You don’t want the heat too high or cook the garlic too long as to burn it. Just 30 seconds to a minute should do the trick. Also, be sure to add the tomatoes in advance of the spinach, because they take longer to blister and cook than the spinach.
We topped salmon filets with this the other day and that was really delicious. Simply grill or bake your salmon and serve a big scoop of Spinach & Tomato Topper over the top.
Spinach & Tomato Topper
Ingredients
- 3 tbsp. olive oil
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 medium yellow onion, thinly sliced
- 1/2 cup finely sliced basil leaves
- 2 tbsp. minced parsley
- 20 cherry tomatoes, halved
- 1 lb. fresh spinach leaves We use triple washed spinach leaves
- 3/4 cup dry white wine
- 3/4 cup chicken or veggie broth
- 3/4 cup Pecorino Romano or Parmesan cheese, freshly grated reserve a couple of tablespoons for sprinkling over the top
Instructions
- Heat 2 tbsp. of the olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add garlic and saute until just starting to brown. Add remaining oil and the onions, and Cooke until onions are translucent and just beginning to caramelize.
- Stir in the basil and parsley and continue to cook for another minute or two. Add 1/4 cup of the white wine and cook down until almost evaporated. Add 1/4 cup of the broth and the cherry tomatoes and cook for about 5 minutes over medium-low heat. Add all but 2 tbsp. of the cheese and stir until melted.
- Begin adding spinach ( a large handful at a time), alternately with as much of the remaining broth and wine as you need to keep it just a little bit saucy. The spinach will wilt, turn dark, and shrink in size as you add it. If you like the topping to be more bright green when you serve it, add the last handful of spinach at the very end just after you remove the pan from the heat and allow it to stay on top of the other veggies in the pan.
- Serve all by itself as a side dish, or on top of grilled salmon filets or boneless, skinless chicken breast.
