Surprisingly Good Spinach Tagliatelle Pasta

I came across this “Spinach Tagliatelle Pasta” by mistake. A few weeks ago, I needed some tomato tagliatelle pasta, sent sweet L to the store and he came home with 3. Not 1, not 2, but 3 packages of “spinach” pasta. I felt he was sending me a sign. To tell you the truth, the spinach pasta was not a very good substitute for the recipe I was using it for. As you recall, I had 2 more packages there in my pantry for crying out loud! I put on my big girl panties and decided to play around a little. To my surprise, my experiment with this pasta ended up to be amazing. I am so excited to share this super easy and yummy pasta with you.

I don’t know about you all, but I only go to the grocery store every other week. So when I say it was time to experiment with this pasta, you’ll understand! I was using just whatever I had left in my house. I had a package of exotic mushrooms in my fridge that of course I bought because they looked sooo neat; yet, I had no plan for them. I always make sure to have a lot of cherry tomatoes on hand. Who doesn’t have minced garlic? I didn’t have any fresh basil (I may have replaced all my herbs with a rose bush) but I did have some fresh cilantro in my fridge. Strangely enough, I had run out of Parmesan Cheese, which never happens! Thankfully,I did have some Asiago Cheese.

Are you all ready for me to stop rambling and tell you how to make the “said yummy” dish? I thought so! Then let’s begin. In one pot, I started boiling some water with olive oil and salt. Fun fact: Did you know that adding those two ingredients to your water not only flavors your pasta but also makes it boil faster? Cool isn’t it? In another large deep pan, I heated up some of my especially nice olive oil. Once I knew the olive oil was hot, I added my mushrooms and gave them a chance to sit there for a bit and do their thing. Once they started to sauté, I added my cherry tomatoes (cut in half). Here is the trick with those little tomatoes. Keep the heat between numbers 7-8 on your stove top. Wiggle the tomatoes around frequently, allowing them to cook until their skins start to burst. Once the skins have burst, stir them a bit more often and add your minced garlic plus salt and pepper. All of those tomato juices will become your sauce (along with the lovely olive oil of course). By now your pasta should be cooked. DO NOT DRAIN IT. Use tongs to pull the pasta out of the pot and put it immediately into the pan with all of your sauce ingredients. Don’t forget to add a smidge of pasta water to the pan as well. Make sure everything is thoroughly mixed. Lastly, stir in your cheese making it all melty and good. Plate your pasta toping it with a fresh herb and more cheese. If you want to add a little flare to your tomato mixture, toss in some red pepper flakes.

---

Surprisingly Good Spinach Tagliatelle Pasta

Ingredients

1 package of spinach Tagliatelle pasta

1 package of cherry tomatoes sliced in half

1 package of exotic mushrooms chopped

1/4 cup of olive oil

2 teaspoons of garlic

1/4 cup Parmesan cheese

salt to taste

2 Tablespoons of fresh Basil

Instructions

1. Boil water for pasta. *Add about a Tablespoon of olive oil and a pinch of salt to the water.

2. As water boils, heat up 1/4 cup of oil (remember to use your fancier olive oil if you have some) in a sauce pan on the stove. Add your mushrooms and let them cook for 2-3 minutes, then add your tomatoes let them cook until the skins burst*. Stir occasionally.

3. *Right before the tomato skins burst add garlic and salt to the pan.

4. Once your pasta is done cooking, use tongs and pull pasta out of pot and put it in the pan with your tomatoes. Make sure some of the pasta water also makes it into the pan with your pasta.

5. Stir around until sauce has covered pasta. Add all but a Tablespoon of parmesan to pan, mix around.

6. After it’s all mixed really well, plate it and top with basil.

---

I love pairing this with a Jeff Cohn Cellars Viogner I will link that here!!!

Enjoy some wine and pasta!

Until the next mess,

Dana