"But after Q? What comes next?"

Mah Dinner: Angel Hair with a Sweet Cherry Tomato Sauce

I’ve been eating too many frozen meals.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 box angel hair pasta
• 1 T butter
• 1 T olive oil
• salt, pepper, & sugar to taste
• 6 cloves garlic, minced
• 3 carrots, shredded 
• 1 carton cherry tomatoes, quartered
• 1 cup pasta water
• Handful spinach leaves
• 2 T white wine vinegar

Cook angel hair according to package directions, reserving 1 cup of the pasta water before draining. Make sure to salt the water before adding the pasta. (I used “Barilla Plus,” which is a multigrain pasta containing protein from “egg whites and legumes such as lentils and chickpeas.”  I find it tastes worse than traditional pasta but better than brown “whole wheat” pastas. And c’mon…it has the protein my flexitarian diet needs.)

While the pasta is cooking, heat the butter and olive oil on medium-low in a large saucepan until the butter is melted. Add the garlic and sauté a minute or so. Add the carrots (shredded with a microplane, w00t) and sauté another minute. Add the tomatoes, salt, pepper, and sugar. Cook for about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. (Have some fun smashing the cherry tomatoes while you’re at it.)

When the pasta is about cooked, dunk a measuring cup in the water. (Be careful, my child!) Add about 1/2 cup of the pasta water to the tomato sauce, and turn heat up to high. Once the mixture has reached a boil, simmer for another 5 minutes. Add more water to reach desired level of sauciness. (The starch in the pasta water will act as a binding agent, and will also help the sauce stick to the noodle.) 

Grab a handful of spinach and add to the pan, stirring until the spinach has just wilted. Toss the pasta into the pan. (By this time you should have drained the pasta. Sorry I forgot to tell you!) Toss the pasta with a bit of white wine vinegar.

Nom!