Warm apple, Canadian bacon, and spinach pasta salad

4
Points®
Total Time
40 min
Prep
20 min
Cook
20 min
Serves
2
Difficulty
Easy
This delicious pasta salad is made for weeknights when you want something hearty, easy, and flavorful. It's the perfect recipe for two and comes together in about 40 minutes. It features pan-seared bacon, thinly sliced apples, fresh thyme, Chardonnay, baby spinach, and whole wheat pasta to help cut down on the calories. If you don’t happen to have any white wine on hand, you can substitute dry vermouth (which will keep for months in a cool, dry place in your pantry). And if you don’t want any alcohol in the dish, simply use unsweetened apple juice and 1/2 teaspoon white vinegar for the wine instead.

Ingredients

Cooking spray

1 spray(s)

Uncooked Canadian bacon

4 oz

Chardonnay white wine

¼ cup(s), or other dry white wine

Apple

1 medium, sweet variety, cored and thinly sliced

Fresh thyme

½ Tbsp

Fat-free reduced sodium chicken broth

cup(s)

Baby spinach

1½ cup(s)

Cooked ziti

2 oz, whole wheat

Black pepper

½ tsp

Instructions

  1. Lightly coat the inside of a large nonstick skillet with cooking spray; set skillet over medium heat for a couple of minutes. Add Canadian bacon and cook, stirring often, until browned at the edges, about 3 minutes.
  2. Pour in wine, increase heat to high, and reduce liquid to half its original volume, stirring once in a while, about 2 minutes. Add apple and thyme; cook until fragrant, about 1 minute.
  3. Add broth and bring to a full simmer. Stir in spinach, pasta and pepper. Cook, stirring all the while, until spinach begins to wilt, and everything is well coated with sauce, about 1 minute. Divide between 2 serving plates.
  4. Serving size: 1 1/2 cups.