Spinach Pasta with Tomatoes & Basil

I'm your food photography guru sharing photography tips, equipment ideas and business advice to help you improve your photography skills and navigate the world of food photography a little easier.

Hey, I'm Regan.

This Spinach Pasta with Tomatoes and Basil is one of my favorite comfort foods. It’s a really easy recipe that I’m sharing below along with some food photography tips for shooting pasta!

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Photography Tips For Shooting Pasta

Get A Large Diffusor

Whether you shoot with natural light or artificial lights, it’s important to be able to diffuse the light. Diffusors help soften the light, which basically makes the light spread out over your subject. With pasta and tomatoes, the olive oil and moisture on the ingredients can get overexposed real quick if you don’t diffuse the light. You can place the diffusor over your window or directly in front of the light you’re using.

Shoot Different Angles

Pasta can look good from almost any angle. Don’t be afraid to move around and try to see things a little differently. Getting more creative with angles can really help elevate the composition of your images.

Read More About: Food Photography Composition Tips

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Recipe Notes for Spinach Pasta with Tomatoes and Basil

Staub Braiser Pan

For this recipe, I got to use my new Staub Braiser Pan. It’s spacious enough to let me to toss all the ingredients together without making a huge mess on the stove. I highly recommend this pan to add to your kitchen tool collection.

Simple Roasted Tomatoes

For this recipe, I roasted the tomatoes with flavors of oregano, garlic, red pepper flakes, fresh basil and parmesan. It smells so good as it all comes together and tastes like it was prepared at a fancy restaurant. It’s amazing how roasting the tomatoes ahead of time really enhanced all the flavors.

Happy Cooking!

Spinach Pasta with Tomatoes and Basil

Ingredients

  • Pasta of your choice
  • 3 cups cherry tomatoes (some whole, some cut in half)
  • 1 bunch basil leaves
  • 3 garlic cloves, minced
  • 1 teaspoon dried Oregano
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
  • 1/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan, plus more for garnish
  • 1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes

Instructions

  1. Bring large pot of water to a boil and cook pasta according to instructions.
  2. Reserve 3/4 cups of the pasta water and set aside.
  3. Heat oil in a large pan over medium heat.
  4. Add the garlic, and sauté for a minute being careful not to burn the garlic.
  5. Add the tomatoes, oregano, salt and pepper.
  6. Cook tomatoes for about 5-7 minutes until juices start to burst.
  7. Add the cooked pasta.
  8. Add reserved pasta water a little at a time until pasta is coated.
  9. Add the basil and Parmesan cheese and gently toss until well combined.
  10. Season with salt and pepper to taste and garnish with additional Parmesan and basil leaves, if desired.

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All Images ©Regan Baroni 2017.

Comments +

  1. Gorgeous as always! Love the use of the spinach noodles!

    • Regan says:

      Thanks so much, Nicole! I can’t wait to make the spinach noodles from scratch next time!

  2. Mike says:

    This really hit the spot on a cold autumn night!

    • Regan says:

      Yes it did! Lots of good comfort food flavor!

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