Wednesday, February 20, 2013

Quick spinach and lemon pasta lunch



As you're aware, my new passion, my local farm box from Greenling, arrived today.  I have it delivered every 2 weeks.  That makes me happy.

I looked through the box today and found spinach, lemon, and oregano,  I had olive oil, garlic, tomato and pasta.  Sounds like lunch to me!

There's no recipe, it's a method so there's only one version, the long winded with loads of pictures version: 

TRACYS QUICK SPINACH AND LEMON PASTA

1/2 box of pasta (I used Barilla angel hair, broken in half - don't judge)
large handful of fresh spinach, roughly chopped
1 tomato, seeded, chopped
zest of half a lemon
juice of that lemon
olive oil
butter (seriously, we can't NOT have butter, you don't need much but use some!)
a little chicken stock or water
1 large garlic clove (sliced paper thin in my new favorite garlic slicer from pampered chef)
salt, pepper, nutmeg (nutmeg and spinach are best friends, always use them together)

Put a large pot of heavily salted water on to boil.

Grab your NEW favorite IKEA non stick frying pan (365 series, look how there's no scratches and it's about a year old) and heat up some olive oil and a good blob of butter
  
Arrange your beautifully chopped up food on the island for quick grabbing.  This is my garlic slicer, i love this thing.  Just drop the garlic in and twist and paper thin slices come out the bottom.  Yeah, it's a good buy.
  
Fry the garlic lightly then add zest and lemon juice and then the chopped tomato.
  
Grate in some fresh nutmeg, spinach and nutmeg are complete best friends, each is better for being near the other.  All the time. Drop in a branch of fresh oregano and shush it around a bit.
  
I'm not terribly patient waiting for water to boil and too lazy to find the lid so this is my speeder-upper regiment.  Drop the pasta into the boiling water and cook for about 3-4 minutes.  Do not overcook it! Before you drain any pasta, ALWAYS grab some of the cooking water, it's starchy and salty and it's a much better option mix into any sauce or to use to make anything into a sauce, just always do this.
  
Look at this yummy sauce, almost together!  This is going to be good. TASTE it, if it's too dull, add more lemon, if it's too acidic, add some pasta water.  Add some wine, add some stock, it's your dish! Drop the drained pasta into the sauce and then top with the chopped spinach.  Toss around quickly, the heat from the pasta cooks the spinach and the pasta absorbs all the olive oil, lemony juices.  MMMMM.
  
Toss around for a minute and plate it up!
  
Freshly grates parmesan cheese for Connor and some fresh oregano leaves. I had cut some homemade bread thickly, buttered and sprinkled garlic powder on it and toasted it.  Mmmmm.  Rather nice looking lunch for two in about 10 minutes.
    
Here are the random beauty shots:
        
This says success to me! 

It's a quick, easy, light lunch and with just a few super fresh ingredients and it's absolutely delicious.  
Go make yourself a quicky bowl. 

/enjoy



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