This past Columbus Day weekend my mom came to visit, even though she couldn't stay until Monday. When she arrived Friday night, it was already almost 10 and Greg and I were starved. I whipped together a quick pasta sauce that turned out fantastically. Since we were all so hungry I made something rich: a creamy spinach sauce that was made in the blender. Saturday night we ate out but before heading to dinner we came home for an aperitif and some pre-dinner crostini - simple and delicious!
Pre-Dinner Crostini
Saturday night my mom and I had plans to go out to dinner, but before we went out we went back to my apartment and changed into warmer clothes, had some wine, and a little appetizer. We had almost no food left and desperately needed to go shopping so I had no idea what I was going to make for us but with half a ciabatta roll, some vegetables, and a few other simple ingredients I was able to throw together some delicious crostini in under 20 minutes.
Ingredients:
- Extra Virgin Olive Oil
- Salt
- Basil leaves
- 1/2 a ciabatta roll
- Fresh chopped tomato
- Sliced zucchini
- Fresh mozzarella, chopped
- Shredded parmigiano & romano cheese
Before doing anything, I turned my oven on and put it at 350F. Then I began my crostini: first I cut the roll into small rounds and topped with a drizzle of olive oil on each. Next I put chopped tomato, a sprinkling of the shredded cheese, and a thinly cut zucchini slice on each. On top of that each crostini got a nice slice of fresh mozzarella. It would have been delicious with fresh basil but unfortunately I had none so I put some dried basil leaves on top. As a last touch, I used a dollop of the leftover spinach sauce from the night before (pictures and recipe coming below!) At this point I put the 6 crostini on the baking sheet, sprinkled them generously with salt, and then stuck them in the oven for 10 minutes or so. Before I knew it, they were ready. It was a perfect warm counterpart to our chilled white wine.
Creamy Spinach Spaghetti with Fresh Tomato
Ingredients:
- Extra Virgin Olive Oil
- Garlic, chopped
- Fresh tomato
- Spanish onion
- Frozen chopped spinach
- Tomato puree, minimally used
- Light cream
- Sour cream
- Salt
- Crushed red pepper
- Goya Sabor a Jamon
- Black pepper
- Shredded parmigiano & romano cheese
- Fresh mozzarella, chopped
I started the dish by simmering olive oil, garlic, onion, and fresh chopped tomato in a frying pan. I let everything get very soft, the onion transparent, and then I knew it was ready once I could smell the garlic and onion clearly from my post at the blender, at which point I turned the heat down even more.
While that was simmering, I was preparing my concoction and throwing all the ingredients into the blender. The ingredients that went in were: olive oil, chopped garlic cloves (3 cloves), the frozen spinach (the amount really depends on how many people you are cooking for, for three people I used one whole block of Bird's Eye chopped spinach), a little pour of tomato sauce, a few pinches of the shredded parmigiano & romano, light cream (maybe 1/4 cup) , sour cream (3-4 tbsp's), a lot of crushed red pepper, 1/4 packet of "pig", and salt.
I blended everything together and then added as necessary. I had accidentally poured in about 1/2 or 3/4 of the packet of "pig" and the taste was overwhelming - it tasted disgusting. In order to fix this I added more light cream, warm water, and more olive oil. I ended up adding more salt and more crushed red pepper once I transferred the sauce to a frying pan. Once it was in the pan, I mixed it with the olive oil/garlic/onion/tomato mixture. This also improved the flavor after my mistake. I let it really heat up and then sprinkled more crushed red pepper, olive oil, and chopped tomato on top. The crushed red pepper gave the sauce dimension and flavor but really did not make it spicy since the sauce was so creamy. It was a nice touch.
As soon as the water had boiled, we threw in the pasta and anxiously waited for it to be ready. When it was almost al dente we put the chopped fresh mozzarella on top of the sauce, covered it, let it melt and then served it piping hot and cheesy!
M
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