Sometimes I look through my recipe books and decide on something I want to make before I actually go food shopping. :)
Since Nigella Lawson never disappoints, I went with her Curly Pasta with Feta, Spinach, and Pine Nuts. It sounded great.... and it was.
Here is the recipe, verbatim, and some photos to prove that I actually made it. :)
Curly Pasta with Feta, Spinach, and Pine Nuts
1/2 cup pine nuts
2 TB garlic flavored oil (I cut a clove of garlic and put it in olive oil)
1 onion, peeled and sliced
salt and pepper to taste
1 pound of cavatappi, fusilli, or other short pasta (I used Fusilli Lunghi - long pasta)
1/4 tsp. allspice
1pound frozen leaf spinach, preferably organic
8 ounces feta cheese, crumbled
3-4 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese
Put abundant amounts of water on to boil for the pasta.
Toast the pine nuts by tossing them about in a hot, dry, heavy-based frying pan (for ease use one that will take the sauce later) until they become golden, then remove to a cold plate.
Heat the garlic flavored oil in the pan and add the onion slices. Keep them on a lowish heat, stirring, for about 8-10 minutes, until soft. If they look like they're getting too brown, sprinkle with a little salt (to help draw out the juices and slow down browning).
When the water comes to a boil, add salt and then the pasta.
When the onion is ready, add the allspice. Then add the frozen spinach; you need to keep stirring this to help the frozen spinach melt consistently.
Just before you drain the pasta, scoop out about an espresso cupful of cooking water and add to the spinach sauce mix.
Crumble the feta into the spinach sauce, stirring as the billiard baize of spinach becomes creamy with the cheese melting into it.
Stir in 3 tablespoons of the Parmesan before tasting to see if you want to add more.
Drain the pasta and toss into the feta spinach sauce to mix, then season to taste. Decant into a, preferably warmed, serving bowl, then add the toasted pine nuts and toss though before serving.
Nigella says that the leftovers make a great salad if you add some lemon juice and olive oil, a sprinkling of salt and a grinding of pepper.
