Linguini With Creamy Spinach

This makes a wonderful meatless main dish or a side dish. I adopted this recipe from Recipezaar in August 2006. I've since made this for my family and they loved it; however, I did made one minor change to the recipe. The original recipe did not call for garlic, but I felt it would have been bland without it. --NOTE-- Frozen spinach can be used. Just thaw, rinse and squeeze water from spinach very well before adding to the skillet of butter.

• Ready In: 40 mins
• Serves: 4

Ingredients

• 1 (10 ounce)  fresh spinach, prewashed and drained
• 2  tablespoons butter
• 3  green onions, chopped
• 2  garlic cloves, minced
• 3⁄4 lb  dried linguine
• 5  ounces cream cheese, cut into cubes
• 2  tablespoons  chopped fresh parsley
• 3⁄4 teaspoon salt
• 1⁄4 cup  grated parmesan cheese
• 1⁄2 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper

Directions

1. Remove any tough stems from the fresh spinach.
2. In large frying pan, melt butter over low heat.
3. Add green onions and garlic and cook for 1-2 minutes.
4. Add spinach and salt and stir until wilted.
5. Simmer until liquid evaporates from spinach, about 5 minutes.
6. In large pot of boiling water, cook linguini according to package directions.
7. Reserve 1 cup of pasta water.
8. Drain linguini and toss with 3/4 cup of pasta water, spinach mixture, cream cheese, parsley, and ground pepper.
9. If sauce seems too thick, add the rest of the reserved pasta water, otherwise you can throw out the remaining 1/4 cup pasta water.
10. Salt to taste.