From Pastaphobic to Pastafantasic

If you dare to take a stroll through the college style kitchen my beautiful roommates and I share in our Manayunk townhouse, you will probably find special K bar's in all of our cabinets, maybe a jar of peanut butter, and possibly some crackers. (and if you're lucky, a visit from our sixth roommate, our mouse we named
"stuart" who resides in our cabinets and tends to make his creepy debut late in the evening ).
What you will most certainly find, is that each one of our cabinets has a box of pasta - but mine.

Although 75% of my heritage represents a map Dublin, the remaining 25% represents a map of Calabria, which neither my Nana, nor my dark features will let me soon forget. Growing up, there were only two meals that I totally hated to eat for dinner- meatloaf, and spaghetti. Meatloaf can speak for itself- but the spaghetti left a horribly soppy, bland aftertaste and always left my stomach feeling heavy even after a few bites. As I got older, and my taste buds expanded, I ventured to tastes like manicotti, or ravioli tossed in vodka, pesto, or garlic sauces. When I became a vegetable lover I tried various primavera dishes that looked exquisitely colorful and didn't taste half bad.

But, when I finished indulging, I started to notice that what was left on my plate was the actual pasta. I will eat everything around the pasta, the veggies, the chicken, the seafood, and leave the pasta. Ironically, one of my favorite things to cook for a big group is tortellini in pesto sauce with mushrooms, broccoli, zucchini, chicken, and with a pinch of garlic. I basically make it because I love the way the add-ins taste in the pesto sauce - but not the actually tortellini.

My task: create a pasta dish that would be light, veggie filled, and most especially, one I would actually want to eat again. To my roommates, this feat is in honor of all the nights we sat around our kitchen table snacking and gabbing at 2am, post bar, as I downed celery and peanut butter and you all enjoyed Meredith's mac and cheese. To my roommate, Meredith, this feat is my apology for the endless ribbing I gave you for your unwavering loyalty to your nightly pasta bowl. Finally, this challenge is dedicated to my dad who jokes that no husband of mine will tolerate a wife who can't cook a bowl of pasta!

A Burke Family favorite restaurant in the Greater Pittston area called Grico's has catered almost all of our family events, communions, birthdays, engagements, you name it. One dish that has become a staple for any event is a cold pasta with sesame seeds, roasted red peppers, and small slivers of grilled chicken. It is fantastic! So, I'm going to try my hand at making my own version and see what happens.

I'm all about the appearance. The dish has to look presentable if I'm going to want to serve it let alone eat it. I picked really unique and fun looking pasta called Campanelle that looks like frilly ziti.


I defrosted some chopped spinach in the microwave as well as some asparagus. For the asparagus, I thought the spears would look the most appetizing and add a little veggie glamour. I cleanly chopped the asparagus in a diagonal cut towards the speared end of the stalk. My grandmother taught me a quick trick for steam veggies that has yet to fail me. Throw whatever veggie you want, broccoli, zucchini, asparagus, into a microwave safe bowl. Sprinkle a little grated cheese, salt and pepper and a dash of EVOO (extra virgin olive oil) or lemon juice. Cover and microwave for about 5 minutes. Works every time.

After I drained the cooked pasta, I poured it into a tupperware container and refrigerated it for about 2 hours. Then i tossed the spinach, the asparagus, threw in some pine nuts, sliced black olives, garlic salt and stirred it in EVOO. You can really put as much EVOO as you'd like. Then I added sun dried tomatoes, which were already packed in olive oil, which gave the dish the extra zest.


It tasted incredibly light with a burst of flavor that hits you on the first bite. As for the pasta itself, I'd recommend a firmly cooked pasta. Don’t be afraid to throw in a lot of spinach. When you're stirring everything together it's going to look like the bowl is flooded with spinach, but afterward you'll want to add more. The key to the zest is You want to get the julienne cut sun dried tomatoes already packed in the oil. The first helping had my mom and I questioning what was missing. Once we added the sun dried tomatoes we looked at each other in agreement that we'd found the missing ingredient.

Result: I loved it. I pictured myself sitting on my back patio with a fresh brewed unsweetened iced tea, enjoying the weather, and for once, enjoying pasta.

To my food writing family, the dish is coming your way tomorrow!!

Recipe
1 lb box of Campanelle Pasta
about 15 asparagus spears
10 oz box of frozen chopped spinach
8.5 oz jar of California Sun dried Julienne Cut Tomatoes
a few pinches of garlic salt (to taste)
EVOO (to taste)
sprinkle of pine nuts
sprinkle of sliced black olives

1. boil and cook pasta and refrigerate for about 2 hours or until cold
2. gently steam the asparagus
3.) defrost spinach
4.) add everything together!