Tag Archives: tomatoes

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.

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Mush

This dish . . . well, I can’t tell you exactly how it came about, but it’s been evolving during our 5 years of marriage into the glorious thing it is today. It could be called “simple stovetop ratatouille” for those of you who might feel guilty serving something called “mush” to your unsuspecting families. This recipe serves 2 very hungry adults—but it’s easy to multiply the quantities.

Ingredients

(2 servings)

1 TBS butter

1 TBS olive oil

2-3 medium zucchini, chopped into cubes

1 pint of cherry or grape tomatoes, halved

6-10 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 to 3/4 tsp salt

1/4 tsp black pepper

1 TBS olive oil/butter to fry the eggs

4 eggs

Serve with steamed white rice

Optional: blue cheese crumbles

First, put your rice on—I use my trusty rice cooker. Dice your zucchini, garlic, and tomatoes. Don’t fear the garlic—I like this dish as garlicky as I can get it.

Smash that garlic!

I used to use the flat of my knife to crush the garlic cloves, which almost cost me a severed hand once. Then, I read The Pioneer Woman, and she set me straight. Smash the cloves violently with a can! The papery skins come right off:

 

Heat the olive oil and butter together in a skillet. Once the butter has melted, add your zucchini.

Cook on high for 6-7 minutes, until the zucchini pieces are starting to get golden.

Season with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Add your garlic and halved tomatoes, and lower the heat to medium.

Let it cook away for a while, about 12 minutes, stirring occasionally until it becomes mushy and delicious (but not too liquidy).

Still too liquidy

When you drag the spatula across the pan, it should leave a space instead of immediately filling with liquid.

The "dragging the spatula" test

When the mush is about done, heat some butter or olive oil in another non-stick skillet and add your eggs. We like to do 2 per person, overeasy. If you’re averse to dirtying another pan (as I sometimes am) you can push the veggies to the side of the mush pan, add your butter/oil to the center, and cook your eggs in the center of the mush.

Serve up individual bowls: start with a nice pile of rice, add a layer of veggies, and slap the eggs on top. If you like your food to look pretty, construct a little arrangement like this:

Sans eggs ...

But if you’re like me, that neat little pile will soon become this (don’t be frightened):

.. and with eggs in a mushily delightful pile!

Have a bite, and you'll be enslaved to mush for the rest of your natural days

If you’re a blue cheese addict like I am, some crumbles on top are never amiss.

I swoon over this bowl of delights every time. It’s so good that it’s what I requested my husband to make for my birthday dinner this year. Just don’t skimp on the garlic! If you do, disappointment and despair will pursue you to the end of your days. (not really) (then again, who can fathom the consequences of garlic-skimping?)

Click here for printer-friendly version: Mush