Spinach and Pesto Pasta Bake

Sorry I don't update that often. I'm kind of hoping to make some progress on this PhD so this semester has largely seen me staying at the library until it gets really dark outside, then coming home to desperate crock-pot experiments based wishful thinking and miscellaneous pantry items. I don't deem it appropriate nor healthy to post those because then one of you poor souls might actually try to recreate it and hold me responsible.

This one is good though. I can vouch for it -- recommend it, even. It's pretty quick to make (good if you are in the throes of PhD studies), and it has spinach in it, which not only is tasty but also makes you strong. Also cheese!

(Serves 2 hungry people or 4 not very hungry people. I guess it would serve three medium-hungry people)

3 cups dry small pasta, like macaroni
1/4 c heavy cream
2 tbs flour
2 tbs basil pesto
1 garlic clove, minced
1 cup grated sharp cheese
1 medium onion in thin slices
2 cups fresh spinach, roughly chopped
2 tbs butter
1/4-1/2 c milk

1. In a cast-iron pan on medium, melt 1 tbs of the butter and saute the onions and garlic until the onions are translucent. Meanwhile, cook your pasta.

2. Turn the heat to low and add the flour to the pan and cook for a minute, then add the cream and the pesto. Stir until combined and cook for 5 minutes, until thickened.

3. Add the spinach and 1/4 c milk and cook until the spinach is wilted and everything looks nice and saucy. Season with salt and pepper.

4. Put the other tbs of butter in a small casserole dish and pour the cooked, drained pasta into it to melt the butter and coat the pasta. This not only greases the casserole, but also keeps the pasta from clumping. Then add the pasta to the pan with the spinach mixture and stir to combine. At this point, if the sauce is too thick, add the rest of the milk and adjust the salt if you need to.

5. Pour the whole shebang back into the casserole dish and top with the grated cheese. Bake in a preheated oven (375 should do it) for 10 minutes, then broil for 2 or 3 more minutes, until the cheesey top is just starting to brown. Do let it cool a bit before digging in.

Happy Birthday, Cast-Iron Darling!

That's right, my little blog is already one year old!

To celebrate, I wanted to do something special so I had my friend Jen over and we cooked up a feast! Plus, I tried my hand at something I had never attempted. It had been on my list for a while: make my own pasta. Without a pasta maker. Not because I'm a masochist; just because I don't own one. Although after reading this, it may seem like the former is also true.

I believe I followed Jamie Oliver's directions because he always seems to make things sound straightforward and tells me I don't have to worry. I halved the recipe because we were only two and the pasta was a side, not the main. We served it with a lovely braised pork butt and the carrot-celery ragout in which it cooked, and a delicious beet roesti, thanks to Mark Bittman - those recipes soon.
 

So!
300g flour
3 eggs

and away we go with this deceptively simple recipe! I wasn't so keen on getting my counter all eggy so I put the flour in my Kitchenaid, since Jamie says you can use a food processor and so I decided a Kitchenaid was close enough. Maybe this was my first mistake.

Actually, my first mistake was not using "Tipo 00" flour. I searched; I could not find any and I didn't feel like going all the way up to Little Italy. So I used all-purpose. Things.... did not go ideally. The dough really didn't want to stick together. It was not as straightforward as Jamie had promised! It seemed like the dough was too dry!

Finally I got it to stick together enough to attempt rolling. I hope you've been working out, because this is serious business. My arms were still sore three days later! Maybe I should do this more often... I digress. Jamie says you should roll it out until it's as thin as a CD. I was really tired so mine was more like a CD and a half. Maybe two CDs. It wasn't thin enough, anyways. But I was proud and happy and rolled up the thin dough and sliced it into thin strips and unrolled it onto the counter. Pasta! It looked like Real Pasta! I was happy.

When we cooked it up, it tasted SO GOOD. DELICIOUSLY GOOD. SO GOOD THAT TWO DAYS LATER I WANTED MORE. I still didn't have a pasta maker. I still don't, come to think of it.

This time, I went and bought some Semolina flour from the bulk store, thinking this would be nice -- isn't Semolina what Real Italians use to make pasta? This may be true, but I am not a Real Italian. I am not even a Fake Italian.

Half-way through making it, I began to think that I should not have approached the Semolina, and I really should not have tried to make pasta A SECOND TIME with only my non-buff arms to roll out the dough. Clearly home-made pasta is good, because nothing else would be able to drive me to these lengths to get it.

This time:

1 c. Semolina
1 c. all-purpose flour
pinch of salt
1 Tbs olive oil
3 eggs (I ended up using 4)

Making this pasta made me want to cry. It would not stay in a well-behaved ball. It crumbled if you even looked at it. It looked like a mound of cheese curds when at rest.

 Proof: Cheese curds, or pasta dough? Impossible to tell.

I left it alone for 30 minutes and let it think about its bad behaviour. When I returned, it had repented. I squooged it into a ball and it stayed. It even allowed itself to be rolled out, with reluctance. My sister called. She was coming for dinner. She wanted to bring a friend. I eyed the take-out numbers on the fridge, made the sign of the cross, and agreed.

It looks impossible at this point that the dough will allow itself to be rolled as thin as a CD.

I don't think my wrists will ever be the same again. However difficult rolling out pasta made from regular flour was, Semolina is beyond the pale. I swore. I made promises I couldn't keep. I vowed vengeance on the pasta.

My poor, red, puffy hands.

It still took 40 minutes to roll out and cut all the pasta, and even then it was not to Jamie's requisite CD-thinness.

Two CDs are better than one, right?

I felt so proud though. The pain made me blind to beauty, as a new mother, fresh from labour, is to her mediocre newborn. My pasta was so beautiful. Perfect. Golden. Nothing could surpass it.

To accompany my beautiful pasta, I made a light sauce of toasted walnuts, minced garlic, and chopped beet greens. 

About 3/4 c chopped walnuts, toasted in a dry pan over medium heat until fragrant. Move those to another dish, and heat 2-3 tbs olive oil and saute the garlic with a pinch or so of coarse salt. Add the beet stems, about a cup or more, and saute as well. At the end, throw in the chopped leaves, about 2 cups, and saute until wilted. Toss with the pasta and more olive oil and some pepper to taste.

It was very well received. The pasta was al dente in a way I had never tasted before. I guess that's the difference of having it fresh. The all-purpose flour pasta I had made the first time tasted more like the spaetzle I sometimes make; the Semolina tasted like Real Italian Pasta.

You know what, this pain-in-my-butt Semolina pasta was worth the agony. It was worth the trouble and the sore wrists and the red palms and the cursing. I would make it again in a second.

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Traditional Lasagna

I can't believe it's this late in the season and I only just made lasagna last week.

This is a recipe that I kind of cobbled together. The meat sauce is based on Emeril's Turkey Bolognese recipe, but I tweaked it. The bechamel is just a bechamel but I didn't used to make lasagna this way - I was formerly in the ricotta-mozzarella camp. I didn't used to like nutmeg in my savoury dishes but making Pastitsio converted me.

This recipe makes enough for 8 people to have one serving, so if you want leftovers it's good for 4 or 6. It's nice with a salad, I think. Our guests brought a lovely spinach, tomato, and boccincini salad, and we had home-made bread on the side.

So here is how you do it:

First, you make the meat sauce. You need:

1 tbs olive oil
1 large diced onion
3 finely diced carrots
2 lbs of ground meat; I used a combination of beef, veal, and pork because I am decadent, but turkey, beef, and/or chicken are great too.
2 cloves of garlic, finely minced
1 small tin of tomato paste
1/2 c dry vermouth or 3/4 c white wine
2 c chicken stock
1/2 c heavy cream
1/4 c parsley
1/4 c fresh basil, chopped or 2 tsp dried

1. Saute the meat in the oil over medium-high until it's not quite brown and broken up.

2. Add the onions and carrots and cook until the onions are soft. Add the garlic and cook until fragrant.

3. Add the vermouth and let it cook off a little, then add the tomato paste and stock. Let this all simmer for a while.

4. Then add the parsley, basil, and cream. Let this simmer away until the sauce is thickened and creamy. Adjust the seasonings if you need to. Set the pan aside and preheat your oven to 350º.


If you are using noodles that you need to boil first, do this. I use oven-ready ones, so there. Lightly grease a lasagna pan and set it ready. Now it's time to make the bechamel sauce.

You need:

4 tbs butter
4 tbs flour
2 c milk
1 tsp nutmeg

1. Melt the butter on medium low. Don't let it brown.

2. Add the flour and cook for 3-4 minutes. Gradually whisk in enough milk for a rather liquidy sauce, then gently boil it to thicken. If it is too thick, add more milk - you can always add more but you can never add less. Mix in your nutmeg at some point, too.

3. When the sauce is at the desired thickness, you are ready to assemble the lasagna. You should have at the ready:

1.5-2 c grated parmesan cheese. This is very important.

How to assemble a lasagna:

You need your bolognese sauce, your bechamel, your noodles, your greased pan, and your parmesan.

Put a layer of bolognese on the bottom of the pan. Then put a layer of noodles, followed by bechamel,  followed by bolognese, followed by parmesan. Repeat these layers until you run out of space in your pan. Try to eyeball the right amounts so you don't end up skimping on anything. You need to end your layers with a bolognese-parmesan one. The parmesan will get nice and golden brown on top, which is pretty to look and and delicious to eat.

Cover loosely with tin foil and bake for 20 minutes. Then take the foil off and bake another 10. If you need to, broil for about 2 minutes at the very end to really get things nice and golden. Despite wanting to gobble the whole thing down like Garfield as soon as it comes out of the oven, it benefits from a "cooling off period" - this will enable you to not burn yourself on the one hand, and on the other hand, to remove slices of lasagna without them looking sloppy and shapeless.


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Brown Sauce Noodles

This recipe comes from a book I picked up years ago in the $10 bin at a bookstore. It's called Noodle, which is amusing to me, but it has paid for itself many times over in terms of how yummy these recipes are. One of the ones we come back to over and over again is this recipe for Brown Sauce noodles, which the book says is a translation of "Zha jiang mian."


The author of the book makes a silly joke about how the fight over who invented pasta extends now to who invented bolognese sauce, but he's on to something. The taste is anything but Italian, but the comfort and rich flavours are both there.


You need:


4 tbsp ground bean sauce*
1 tbs hoisin sauce
1/2 c chicken stock
1/2 tsp sugar
2 tbs canola oil
5 spring onions, white part, chopped
1 tbs minced garlic
500g ground turkey**
400g fresh Shanghai noodles***
1 cucumber, cut into long matchsticks
2 spring onions, green part, finely sliced****
1 c fresh bean sprouts, blanched

* The recipe actually calls for brown bean sauce, but I've never been able to find it and now I've stopped looking because ground bean sauce is really really delicious.

** The recipe actually calls for pork, but I usually use turkey just because.

*** Shanghai noodles are sold fresh in Asian grocery stores. They are thicker than spaghetti - more like udon but not quite the same.

**** If you don't want to slice the onions, because it is a pain, I assure you that you can still make the dish pretty with chopped green onion and it will taste identical. It's good practice for knife skills, though!

So here's what you do.

1. In a small bowl, mix the sauces, stock, and sugar.

2. Heat the oil in a non-stick pan and fry the spring onion (white parts) and the garlic for 20 seconds. Then add the turkey and stir until it browns. When the meat is cooked, add the sauce mixture and simmer on a lower heat for 5 minutes.

3. Meanwhile, cook your noodles in boiling water for 4-5 minutes. Drain and place in bowls.

4. Spoon sauce over noodles, then add a sheaf of cucumber strips, green onion strips, and bean sprouts. Enjoy!

Sun-Dried Tomato Cream Sauce

This was kind of an experiment. I didn't want to leave the house to shop, but I still wanted a delicious dinner. Armed with pantry ingredients, I ended up creating a pretty darn tasty sauce to serve over pasta.


You need (for 4 servings):

8 oz pasta of your choice (I used penne)
8 sun-dried tomatoes (not in oil - dry)
3 tbs olive oil
3 cloves of garlic
1 large chicken breast (mine was 12 oz)
1/4 c shredded basil leaves
freshly ground pepper
1 c water or chicken stock, divided
3 tbs cream cheese (optional)
freshly snipped chives (optional but lovely)

1. Soak the sun-dried tomatoes in 1/2 c water for about 30 minutes, or until they are soft.

2. Drain the tomatoes, reserving the soaking water. Place the tomatoes and the garlic and 1 tbs of olive oil (and a tbs of the soaking water if you need it) in a food processor and process until almost smooth (some chunks are good and tasty!).

3. In a large cast-iron skillet, heat 2 tbs olive oil over medium heat. When the pan is hot, brown the chicken on both sides and set aside. Pour the soaking water from the tomatoes into the pan and scrape up the browned bits on the bottom of the pan. Let simmer while you slice up your browned chicken breast into bite-sized slices. This would be a good time to start boiling your pasta water.

4. Return the chicken to the pan along with the tomato puree. Allow the chicken to cook through with the tomatoes. This would be a good time to cook your pasta. When the past is almost done lower the heat and add the cream cheese, if using, and the chives, pepper to taste, and the basil.


5. When the cream cheese has mixed in and your pasta is cooked, drain the pasta and toss it with the sauce. If it is too thick, add some liquid until you get the consistency you like. Pasta water is good for this, or stock. Serve with a sprig of basil on top, if you like!

Pastitsio!

Pastitsio happens to be my oldest sister's favourite meal - with good reason: it's delicious! It's a Greek layered pasta dish made with meat sauce and Bechamel.The spicing of the meat distinguishes it from an Italian-style meat sauce and compliments the Bechamel.


This recipe is from an old Martha Stewart Living magazine - 2001, to be exact. It calls for ground lamb, which is so yummy if you can afford it, but if you can't, ground beef or turkey would do the trick - even veggie ground round might do it!

The recipe is found here, or you can read below; I've modified it only slightly, as I tend to like more spices than recipes tend to call for.


For the meat sauce:

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
2 white onions, cut into 1/4-inch dice
2 pounds ground lamb (or beef/turkey)
2 teaspoons coarse salt
3 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
1/3 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 cup dry red wine
1 can (6 ounces) tomato paste
2 dried bay leaves
2 cups beef stock

For the Bechamel:

6 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
3 cups whole milk
1 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
2 teaspoons coarse salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 pinch ground cayenne pepper

To assemble the dish:
butter for the baking dish, or cooking spray
1 pound cooked noodles, like Penne, Cavatappi, Rigatoni, or Ziti.

How to make it all work:
1. Make the meat sauce first. Saute the onions in olive oil over medium eat. Add the meat and the spices and cook until browned. Add the wine and cook until reduced, then add the tomato paste, the bay leaves, and the 2 cups of water. Simmer for 30 minutes and then cover and remove from heat. The smell of the cinnamon and nutmeg mixing with the onions and meat makes your whole house smell amazing! It is very difficult to not eat the sauce without waiting for the dish to be finished.


2. Next make the bechamel. Melt the butter over medium heat until it bubbles, and then add the flour and baking powder. Cook, stirring with a whisk, for about a minute. If it's lumpy at this stage, not to worry. When you whisk in the milk in the next step it'll smooth out nicely.


While still whisking, add the milk slowly. Whisk constantly until the sauce bubbles and thickens. Remove from heat, stir in the cheese and spices, and set aside, covered.



3. Now, preheat your oven to 375º and assemble your dish. Grease your baking dish (9-by-13 works well) with the butter or spray. Cook your pasta, if you haven't already done so - don't cook it as long as you would if you were eating it right away - very al dente is best. Drain the noodles and add them to the meat sauce; stir to combine. Pour the meat and pasta into the baking dish.


Then spread the Bechamel over top. Sprinkle with a bit more parmesan, if you have it, and bake until the top is golden, about 30-40 minutes. Let the dish settle for 10 minutes before you serve it.


Even my very picky nephews asked for seconds!

Review: Campbell's Cream of Chicken Easy Cooking Sauce

Campbell's has really been pushing these new "Easy Cooking Sauces" - their people shoved about 5 flyers with coupons through my door, and the grocery store was having a crazy sale on them all of last month. I got a carton for about 70 cents, I think.

Anyways, each carton comes with a little recipe to show you how to use the sauce. I got Mediterranean Chicken Rotini Bake on the back of mine.

Basically, you mix the sauce with spices and pasta, put some veggies on top, then chicken, cover with cheese, and bake for about an hour. As with all these ready-made soups and sauces, the sodium levels are through the roof. Each serving has 720mg, out of a daily max of 2300mg.

It's supposed to come out looking like this:

(photo from Campbells.ca)

You need:

1 carton (500mL) CAMPBELL'S Cream of Chicken Easy Cooking Sauce
2 cups uncooked whole wheat rotini
1/4 cup chopped fresh basil *
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 cups (1/2” / 1 cm dice) zucchini **
2 tbsp chopped pitted black olives
1 cup chopped plum tomatoes
4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts ***
1/2 cup shredded part-skim Mozzarella cheese
2 tbsp grated Parmesan cheese
Additional chopped fresh basil for garnish

Directions

• 1. Combine cooking sauce, pasta, basil and garlic in shallow 2 qt (2 L) baking dish.
• 2. Spread evenly with vegetables. Top with chicken. Sprinkle with cheeses. Cover.
• 3. Bake at 400ºF (200ºC) for 50 minutes or until hot and bubbly. Remove cover and broil until cheese is golden and bubbly – about 3 minutes. Stir pasta, sprinkle with additional chopped fresh basil and let stand 5 minutes before serving.

* I used about twice this much basil, as I had some to get rid of.
** I didn't have enough zucchini so I made up the difference with some red and green peppers and a bit of brocolli
*** I think that a whole chicken breast is really a lot for one person, so for four people I used two and just cut each in half.


Verdict:


Meh. It was fine, but nothing to write a blog post about, or anything.

Even though I only cooked it for a total of 50 minutes, rather than the recommended 53, the zucchini were very mushy, and the chicken was quite dry. Despite the amount of sodium, the dish was not overly salty, which was good. As far as flavour, the sauce didn't disappoint; I tasted it before mixing it in with the pasta, and it was nice. But the end product was a bit bland and lacked something.

If I made this again, I would double the garlic, at least, and leave out the zucchini in favour of more peppers, which stood up a bit better to the long baking. I would also add a diced red onion.

Spaghetti Aglio E Olio

E red peppers e chives...


If you plan on kissing, make sure your kiss-ee eats this too. It's for garlic lovers!

You need (serves 2):

1/8 tsp red paper flakes
8 cloves of garlic, thinly sliced
4 tbs olive oil
spaghetti for 2
2 tbs minced chives or 2 tbs chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
1/3 of a red pepper that needed to get used up (optional but yummy)

1. Heat the oil on very low in a large cast-iron skillet (big enough to toss the pasta in later). Add the garlic and let it cook.

2. Meanwhile boil your water with lots of salt. When it's boiling, add your pasta.

3. Pour yourself a glass of wine and chop up your chives and/or parsley and/or peppers.

4. Wait for the garlic to get a bit brown on the edges. Hopefully this will correspond with your pasta being almost done. At this point, toss in your peppers and parsley/parsley substitute and the red pepper flakes.


5. When your pasta is done to your liking, drain it and toss with the oil etc. Add salt and pepper to taste and enjoy!

Penne with Rosemary

I wish this picture could express the amazing things that the rosemary did for the taste. This sauce had a really unexpected depth of flavour. It was rich and flavourful without being heavy - perfect for the oncoming spring. And because you add flour and milk at the last moment, the sauce coats each piece of pasta, so you can stretch a small amount of sauce (with a big taste) over a large amount of pasta. It's also an excellent pantry-dinner; I had all the things required already in the house (with some minor subs)!


I got the recipe from the Serious Eats column "Dinner Tonight", which is an excellent resource when you don't know what to make for dinner. Here's their recipe:

Spaghetti with Rosemary

- makes 4 servings -

Ingredients

2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons fresh rosemary leaves, minced (I used 1 tbs dried)
1 garlic clove, chopped
1/2 red chile, chopped (I used about 1/4 tsp dried chili flakes)
9 ounces canned tomatoes with juice, chopped
1 tablespoon flour
1 tablespoon milk
1 tablespoon water
12 ounces spaghetti (I used penne - no spaghetti in the house!)
Parmesan
Salt

Procedure

1. Pour the oil in a skillet and turn the heat to medium. Toss in the rosemary, garlic, and chile. Cook until fragrant, about two minutes. Pour in the chopped tomatoes. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer, and cook for 30 minutes.

2. In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, water, and milk.

3. Bring a large pot of water to a boil for the spaghetti. Cook according to directions on the box.

4. When done simmering, season with the tomato sauce with salt, and then pour in the flour mixture. Mix together and then cook for 5 minutes.

5. Toss the drained spaghetti in with the rosemary sauce to coat. Serve with some grated parmesan.

Roasted Trout with Sundried Tomato Marinade

This was the fastest, easiest, most refreshing meal. It looks great, tastes great, and took under 25 minutes from start to end.


You need (serves 2):

• A trout or salmon fillet about 2" thick and 5" by 6" in area
• 2 tbs miracle whip or yoghurt
• 2 tbs minced sun-dried tomatoes (I used dried, soaked them in hot water for 10 minutes, then minced them)
• 1 tsp fresh ground black pepper, plus more to taste
• 5 cloves of garlic, minced, divided
• enough green beans for 2
• 3/4 c orzo
• 1 can chicken broth + 1 can water
• 1 tsp butter
  

You can serve this with things other than green beans and orzo - this is just what appealed to me.

1. Preheat oven to 375ºF.


2. In a small bowl, mix about half of the minced garlic, the miracle whip/yoghurt, the sun-dried tomatoes, and the pepper.

3. Wash and dry the fish and place on a foil-lined baking sheet. Smear the marinade over the fish and put the fish in the oven.



4. Put your broth on to boil and start trimming and washing your beans. When the broth boils, pour in the orzo.


5. When the orzo is almost done (about 15 minutes), put the beans in a saute pan with 1 tsp butter and the rest of the garlic. Saute on medium-high. By the time the beans are done, the orzo and the fish will be too! Make sure the fish is opaque throughout before serving.

Veggie Lasagne

Warmer weather means that I have fewer hankerings for large pieces of meat and long-braised stews. But I'll always love cheese.

You need:

1 tin tomatoes, diced or crushed (depending on how chunky you want your sauce)
1 medium onion, finely diced
3 cloves of garlic, minced
1/2 c red wine (optional)
1/2 c stock of some sort... i used chicken
1 tbs olive oil
1 or 2 bay leaves
1 or two carrots, grated
1/2 a red or yellow pepper, thinly sliced into 2" pieces
1 smallish zucchini/courgette, thinly sliced
2 handfuls spinach or 1/2 pack frozen spinach, diced
2 handfuls fresh arugula (optional)
some lasagna noodles (i used oven-ready ones; if you aren't you'll have to boil them first)
250 ml cottage cheese (it is tradition in my family to use cottage cheese. please don't kill me!)
250 g grated mozzarella
4 tbs parmesan cheese

1. Saute the onion and garlic in the olive oil over medium heat.

2. Add the tomatoes, carrot, spinach, stock, and wine, if using. if you're not using the wine, add a bit more stock. I like to add grated carrot to the sauce because the sweetness of the carrot takes the edge off the acidity of the tomatoes, and you don't have to resort to sugar, as some do. The sauce will be delicious on its own, and if you chicken out at this point, you can always eat it over other pasta. It's a good default sauce.

3. Simmer until reduced a bit; I used this time to chop my other veggies.

4. In a casserole dish, layer sauce, then noodles, then cheese (some cottage, some mozza), then zucchini; then sauce, then noodles, then cheese, then peppers and arugula, if using; then sauce, then noodles, then sauce, then the rest of the mozza and all the parmesan.

5. Cover with a lid or tinfoil and bake in a 375ºF oven for 30-40 minutes; then uncover and bake another 15 minutes, until the cheese is toasty on top.

There is no "served" photo because I actually think it's impossible to make a lasagne stand up properly as they do on the box of noodles. :) But it was delicious and you'd never know there was no meat. :)

Spaghetti Primavera

This is such an easy and healthy dinner.


That is, until I smothered it with parmesan cheese!

You need:

Enough pasta for 4 people (or two people, or one person etc. My amounts are for 4 because we like leftovers.)
Red bell pepper, quartered and thinly sliced
Zucchini, halved lengthwise and thinly sliced
3 cloves of garlic, minced
Half a red onion, quartered, then thinly sliced
1 cup arugula or baby spinach
3 tbs olive oil
salt and pepper

1. Put on a big pot of water and while you're waiting for it to boil, chop up your veggies.

2. Saute your onion and garlic in 1 tbs of the oil in a pan.

3. When water is boiling, put your pasta in that pot, and at the same time, put the red pepper and zucchini in with the onions and garlic.

4. When the pasta is cooked, drain it, then put it back in the pot with the other 2 tbs of olive oil. Add your veggies on top, and the arugula. Season to taste and toss to coat the pasta in the "sauce".

5. Drench in parmesan cheese, and eat up!

I served this with homemade bread and a caesar salad with pancetta. (The pancetta is really easy - all you do is separate out your pancetta slices and arrange them on a paper towel on a plate. Put it in the microwave for about 2 minutes. That pancetta will crisp up like nobody's business and you can put it on anything! Pasta, salads, in sandwiches...! YUM!)