Veggie Pasta that DOESN'T suck

[brian]

The original plan tonight for dinner was some sort of chicken and pasta dish...

Well, I forgot to take out some chicken to de-thaw last night, and I REFUSE to use the microwave to de-thaw meats. So, it turned into a veggie dish :)


Note: Serves about 3-4, or less with less pasta (and a little less veggies in the mix, your choice)

Ingredients:

1 white onion
6 cloves of garlic
hand full of white mushrooms
1/2 red bell pepper
5 oz fresh picked spinach (about a half the normal "bag" of spinach)
box of pasta of choice (i used tri-colored Rotini)
parsley
basil
black ground pepper
kosher salt
EVOO
your choice bottle of Syrah red wine ( I used a 2003 MacRostie)

[brian]

cook your pasta just like you normally would... boil it up, and drain.
DO NOT OVER COOK. Leave it on the VERY aldante side, as it will continue to cook from the heat left, and will be getting sauteed afterwards.

**DO NOT RINSE**

you want the starch.

While that is going, get a LARGE sautee pan going on med-hi (6-7) with a generous amount of EVOO to coat the pan.

Get your veggies together, and start to cut and dice the onion, pepper, mushrooms and garlic

[brian]

get the onion in the pan first, as it takes the longest to cook out of all the ingredients.


after about 5 min,
add in a pinch of salt, a lot of black pepper, some basil and some parsley.

[brian]

Toss that around a little bit so that everything gets coasted evenly.

Add in the peppers and mushrooms.

[brian]

When the mixture starts to look like the first pic, add in the garlic as shown in the 2nd pic.

[brian]

after a few min, its time to add in the spinach.
stir it in, flipping it and getting it coated.

Remember, make sure you have a LARGE pan to do this in. It looks like a LOT of spinach, but once spinach sees heat, it shrinks down.

depending on your mixture and juices, you may want to dab a little more EVOO into the mix now too. I didn't, as my pan was juicy still from the onion.

[brian]

Now, its time to add in the wine.

I used about a half a cup... maybe a little more. I eyed it.

basically, just pour it in till its coated and there's a little bit on the bottom to "simmer"

[brian]

Finally, stir in your pasta.

I stired in about 1/2 a lb in this pic, for 2 servings. The remaining pasta, i will use tomorrow for a side dish in a salad of some sort.

[brian]

When all is coated, and the pasta is warm again (its probably been sitting a while if you started the pasta first), you're done.

Plate it up, dash with a little fresh parm, and finish the bottle of wine. :)

Enjoy.

[Cannysage]

fudge man,

I didn't even eat dinner... I'd inhale that meal in 5 seconds, right now.