Monthly Archives: July 2010

Spinach Blue Cheese Pasta

The platform for this recipe is PW’s Pasta with Tomato Blue-Cheese Sauce. I’ve made versions of it many times since she posted it in April, and it’s kind of morphed into something different, with spinach featuring as a main ingredient, a blend of spices I adore, and some dry sherry. Guys, if you like blue cheese, this is a MUST. The photo does not do it justice–trust me and make it immediately. In fact, I’m going to go ahead and apologize for the photography since this was one of the 1st recipes I took pictures of while cooking. Ignore the weird color balance and just believe me when I say that this is the crowning jewel of pasta recipes in my book. The only chopping involved is the garlic, so it creates minimal dishes (always a perk).

Ingredients

(2 servings)

1 TBS olive oil

6 cloves garlic

1-14.5 oz. can diced tomatoes

1 tsp brown sugar

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 tsp black pepper

1/2 tsp granulated toasted onion

1/8 tsp white pepper

1/4 c dry sherry (or red wine)

1/3 c crumbled blue cheese

1/3 c heavy cream

1/2 bag (4.5 oz.) spinach

1/2 lb cooked pasta, to serve

Optional and evil: garlic croutons, for sprinkling on top

If you start boiling your water first of all, the spinach sauce should be done right before you have to drain the pasta.

Heat olive oil in a non-stick pan over medium-high heat. Add your garlic, and fry about 1 minute, until fragrant.

Add the whole can of tomatoes, juice and all. Turn the heat up to high and add your sugar, salt, peppers, and toasted onion granules (if you don’t have this, you could try substituting a mix of dried onion and onion powder … or onion salt, and cut the 1/4 tsp salt).

Cook for 10 minutes, stirring frequently–the liquid should all but evaporate. Once the liquid is almost all gone, add your sherry (you can turn off the flame temporarily for safety). Let it simmer over medium-high heat for a minute or two.

Reduce the heat to medium-low, and add your blue cheese.

See how the liquid was pretty much gone?

Stir until melted. Add the cream, and stir to incorporate.

 If you taste it at this point, it will seem a little overseasoned, but once the spinach goes in everything will make sense. Turn the heat down a little further and add the spinach. It will look like way too much, but don’t worry–it cooks down fast.

Stir as it wilts. . .

. . . and take it off the heat after about 1-2 minutes. Hopefully your pasta is about done by now:

Fresh pasta! There’s nothin’ like it.

So serve it on up! Unhealthy but delicious idea: once I sprinkled garlicky croutons on top. The crunch with the wilted spinach and al dente pasta was divine.

Click here for printer-friendly version: Spinach Blue Cheese Pasta

Winds of Chance

Why do I keep posting  book recommendations that are for girls only?? It’s a major concern to me right now. I used to think I was just a person . . . but as it turns out, I’m actually a girl. It’s an inextricable part of my being, and it defines what I love in life. I’m sorry, tabula rasa theorists. I was born this way!

That probably also explains why I keep returning to this wine . . . everything is starting to make sense:

Wine conoisseurs, please don’t laugh me off the internet. God made me to like fruity, juice-like wines. This bottle was a gift from my mother-in-law. She also likes girly wines, and for that I am grateful. I don’t stand alone in my shame!

The English author Jeffery Farnol (1878-1952) is one of my guilty pleasures—though it should no longer be “guilty” since we have just established that I was born like this. He is a treasure trove of archaic views, fainting women, over-dramatic scenes, and gender stereotypes. Ah yes, the gender stereotypes. So why do I like him? Well—his novels are incredibly romantic. And somehow that cancels out any reservations that any person of sense could ever bring to the table. Romance conquers all! . . . or was that love? Wait, is there a difference?

His books have it all: duels and boxing matches over a woman. Full lips and drooping lashes. Helpless women and strong men; feisty women and men who put them in their place. But I just love them the way they are! Would they enrage a feminist? Perhaps. The storylines all emphasize that submission to a strong and good man is a beautiful thing. Does the word “submission” make you cringe? Well, a few years ago it made me cringe too. And then something changed (namely, a strong and good man). But that’s another story for another time.

“Winds of Chance” (originally “Winds of Fortune”) is the epitome of everything Farnol represents. It’s the first novel of his that I read, and it got me hooked forever. It was published in 1934, and that alone makes it practically historical—in fact, I don’t know why they didn’t have us read it in history class. Plot summary: a feisty and beautiful woman named Ursula through various contrivances ends up on a pirate ship called The Deliverance. She experiences many stirring adventures on the seas and in the jungles, throughout which time she falls madly in love with Japhet, her abductor. He saves her from villains, looks deeply into her eyes, wields various kinds of weaponry, calls her “wench” at least a dozen times, etc. etc.

Please look at some of these fantastic chapter titles:

Other Farnol favorites of mine are “The Broad Highway” (published in 1910—even more historical!), “The Amateur Gentleman”, “Beltane the Smith”, and “The Money Moon.”

If you’re still not feeling convinced, please read the front of “The Broad Highway”:

“Hee who myne heart would keepe for long

shall be a gentle man and strong.”

I’m already sobbing into my morning java. The good kind of sobbing.

Make a fancy coffee and curl up with “Winds of Chance” over the weekend.

Next week—a more guy-friendly book review. Maybe.