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Recipe: Goat Cheese Pasta with Arugula & Cherry Tomatoes (Vegetarian!)

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This recipe is a shout out to my friend Abbe down at Lucky Penny Creamery. Recently I came into a goat cheese windfall- it doesn’t happen every day of the week so I thought you might be interested in hearing about it.  The long and short is that Abbe at Lucky Penny Creamery saw fit to hook me up with some fresh chèvre and feta in exchange for some gear that they could use. It made my day when I found a box full of cheese, fruit and other goodies- made me smile for the entire afternoon. What has made me smile ever since is the cheese. If you haven’t tried Lucky Penny chèvre, you are missing out. It’s creamy, smooth and has a hint of freshness on the palate that is absolutely refreshing to taste. As I have written before in my Lucky Penny blog post, I think that their feta is some of the best available in Cleveland. The people at Lucky Penny know how to make really good cheese.

How can you pass up tomatoes that look this good? Photo by Scott Groth

That being said, I now had a large amount of a perishable product on my hands. I know, tough life. I gave some to my friend Jamie and then had some other friends over to chow down on some bread and cheese. All the while, I was racking my brain for a fresh, new recipe that I could make and post up. It took me a couple days, but inspiration came to me in the last couple days. I’ve been talking to people on The Chubby Cook Facebook page about coming up with more vegetarian options, so this recipe is my response to those discussions. Believe me, there are plenty more coming, but this is a good start. For your carnivores out there, have no fear, you’ll love this dish too.

Lucky Penny fresh chèvre. Delicious. Photo by Scott Groth

With regard to the recipe, it is really quite simple. Arugula has a distinct spiciness to it that just kicks the flavors into overdrive. If you can’t find arugula, you can use baby spinach in a pinch. I would add the spinach in at the last minute though because it will wilt more than the arugula. As you can see from the pictures, I used a variety of cherry tomatoes. The colors looked incredible to me, but if you can only find red tomatoes, they will definitely work. As mentioned, I used Lucky Penny chèvre, which is smooth and creamy. Log goat cheese can be used, but if you are going to use it hold back on adding salt until after the goat cheese has been incorporated due to the typical salty nature of log goat cheese. If you want, you can add cheese at the end, but it’s really not necessary.

Serves 4 people

Ingredients:

1 box rotini or other pasta which will catch the sauce.
2 cups cherry tomatoes, rinsed and dried
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/3 cup goat cheese
2 cups loosely packed arugula, washed and dried
1 cup pasta water
Salt and Fresh Cracked Pepper

Get out a big pot, fill with water and start heating to cook the noodles. This dish comes together in about 8 minutes, so the noodles should be cooking before you get started with the sauce. Make sure that the pasta water is salted. Cook according to the instructions on the box. If you want, make the pasta in advance. Strain (being sure to keep 1 cup of the liquid aside) and run under cold water at the end to halt the cooking process. Set aside.

In a sauce pan, heat a 2 count of olive or canola oil over medium-high heat. Make sure that your tomatoes are dry before dumping into the oil, otherwise the spatter will go everywhere. Toss the tomatoes into the pan once it is hot. Keep the tomatoes moving around every so often in the pan- some will start to burst which is okay. Cook the tomatoes for about 4-5 minutes. Turn the heat to medium-low and add in the garlic. Stir continually for 2 minutes to avoid burning.

These tomatoes are sizzling. Photo by Scott Groth

Add in the goat cheese and incorporate gently. The sauce should turn from a bright red to almost a pink color. Looks good, right? Okay, so now we add in the reserved cup of pasta water. Incorporate. Add in 1/2 of the arugula and 1/2 of the pasta. Mix gently. If it looks like you are going to be light on sauce, add in some more goat cheese and pasta water. Continue to add in the arugula and pasta. Gently mix over heat.

Add in the chèvre and gently incorporate. Photo by Scott Groth

Put everything together in the pan to let the pasta absorb flavor. Photo by Scott Groth

Serve in bowls with a good chunk of rustic bread with some of the goat cheese on it. I smeared some Kerrygold butter on my bread, but that’s just me. As a side note, there is a world of difference between Land-O-Lakes butter and Kerrygold when it comes to flavor. I wouldn’t suggest throwing Kerrygold into just anything because it is expensive, but it definitely tastes great in baked goods and on bread. Okay, back to the pasta. This dish would go great with a Malbec, although we ate ours while drinking some Great Lakes Dortmunder Gold. Some nights are just beer nights. Top with some fresh arugula, cheese if you would like and enjoy!

Fresh, light and delicious. Vegetarian too. Photo by Scott Groth


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