This Week's Pick: Brothy Spinach and Peas Pasta

One recipe, ranked by engagement and ease of prep. This week it wasn't close.

Of the 23 new recipes published across NYT Cooking, Bon Appétit, and Serious Eats between May 10 and 17, Brothy Spinach and Peas Pasta by Kay Chun for NYT Cooking pulled the widest gap at the top. 1

The numbers: 151 ratings averaging 5 stars in the first week of publication. For context, the runner-up — Scallion Chicken and Rice for Two, also on NYT Cooking — drew 131 ratings at 5 stars over the same window. 2 Both numbers are high for new editorial recipes in their first seven days. The Brothy Pasta wins on rating volume and on execution simplicity: 3 steps versus the Scallion Chicken's 5, and one pot versus one pan. For a Wednesday night when nobody wants to think, that gap matters.

The dish sits halfway between a soup and a sauced pasta — a brothy, one-pot bowl built around canned black-eyed peas, ditalini, and a generous amount of spinach. Kay Chun describes how the technique works: "Creamy protein-dense black-eyed peas provide meaty texture and enthusiastic stirring at the end of cooking helps the starches in the pasta lightly thicken the sauce." 1

The finish — butter, Parmesan, and dill stirred in off the heat — brings it together. Total time is 40 minutes, serving 4. The three-step process is as simple as it sounds: build a broth base, cook the pasta directly in it, finish with dairy and herbs.

The 14-ingredient list reads like a weeknight pantry audit:

One flag worth reading before you shop: the recipe as published calls for chicken broth, which means it isn't fully vegetarian. 1 Swapping in vegetable broth makes it vegetarian without changing the technique — the starch thickening comes from the pasta itself, not from anything in the stock.

Lemon juice kept coming up across the comment section. Several readers found the dish needed a bit of acidity to balance the richness from butter and Parmesan, and a squeeze at the end addressed it. 1 Worth having a lemon on the counter.

One reader took the umami in a different direction: "After I tasted it with the Parmesan cheese I added nutritional yeast as well. Definitely improved the taste and consistency." 1 That move also brings it into fully vegan territory if you skip the butter and use a dairy-free Parmesan stand-in.

On leftovers: the brothy format works in your favor here. Extra liquid in the bowl means the pasta doesn't dry out or seize up overnight the way a drier sauce-coated dish would. Reheat gently with a splash more broth if needed.

→ Full recipe: Brothy Spinach and Peas Pasta on NYT Cooking

If you're cooking for two and want something protein-forward with a more centered main ingredient, Scallion Chicken and Rice for Two by Nargisse Benkabbou is the next one to pull up. 2 At 131 ratings and 5 stars from the same week, it earned its place. Bone-in chicken thighs, basmati rice, 8 ingredients, 45 minutes, one pan. Benkabbou uses scallions two ways: cooked soft into the base until sweet, then scattered fresh at the end for a sharper allium finish.

The Brothy Pasta wins this week on engagement volume and step count. The Scallion Chicken is the right call if your household eats for two and you want something built around chicken rather than beans.