Spinach Aritcoke Pasta

Ok, so yes this has lots of cream and cheese in it, but it's so so good and the kids loved it. I had all of this spinach leftover from my farm box and wanted to use it somewhere and happened to have cream cheese and sour cream which I rarely have in my fridge. I modified this recipe a bit by using fresh spinach, and swapping out the hot sauce for sundried tomatoes. My 1 yr old will eat anything with wine in it so I added a little extra of that.

INGREDIENTS
2 Tbsp olive oil
4 cloves garlic
4 oz. neufchatel cheese
1/2 cup sour cream
1/4 cup white wine (or more)
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup grated parmesan
1 can (14 oz) quartered artichoke hearts
1 pkg (10 oz) chopped spinach, thawed (I used 2 bunches of fresh from my farm box)
1 Tbsp hot sauce 1 Jar of sun dried tomatoes, drained.
1 tsp red pepper flakes (optional)
to taste
salt and pepper
12 oz. pasta (any shape)



STEP 1: Put a large pot of water on to boil with a lid. When it comes to a boil, blanch the spinach until bright green, about 1-2 mins. Remove from boiling water with a fine mesh hand held strainer. Cook the pasta in the spinach water.
STEP 2: While you are cooking the pasta, start making the sauce. Heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Mince the garlic and cook it in the oil until it is slightly tender (1-2 minutes).
STEP 3: Add the neufchatel (cream cheese), sour cream and white wine. Stir until everything is evenly incorporated. Reduce the heat to medium/low.
STEP 4: Add the milk and parmesan cheese. Stir it in until the parmesan has melted in and is evenly incorporated. Stir in the hot sauce and thawed/drained spinach. Add the sundrieded tomatoes.
STEP 5: Drain the can of artichoke hearts. Roughly chop them and add to the sauce. Taste the sauce and season with salt, pepper and red pepper flakes if desired.
STEP 6: Add the cooked and drained pasta and stir to coat. Serve warm.