Friday Night Pasta

I probably don't make "Friday Night Pasta" the same exact way twice, it's really more of a strategy then a recipe.  At the end of a busy week, the food supply and my energy are often dwindling, ready to be replenished with a Saturday morning trip to Whole Foods.  But I can usually summon enough energy and ingredients to round up a simple, tasty meal with pasta and eschew the temptation to order pizza.

I get home, chat with Brendan and Jodi, and assemble what veggies and other ingredients and figure out what I can make of them.  Last night the suspects were:

8 ozs baby spinach (makes a lot more sense to buy by the pound)

about a cup of fresh ricotta, remaining from the lamb ragu I'd made

1 yellow bell pepper

extra toasted almonds and walnuts left from salad making

green beans--too far gone, had to toss (Brendan likes picking out beans at the store better than eating them)

1 red onion

and of course there is always garlic in our house--4 cloves

I got the water boiling for pasta, then heated some olive oil in a medium pan.  Chop the onion and garlic, begin to saute.  When onion softens, add diced yellow pepper. Season with dried oregano and marjoram (fresh herbs would be nice if on hand).  Had some small pasta shells on hand that seemed to make sense to catch the heavy ricotta, so got that cooking as I worked on the vegetables.

I blended the ricotta with 1/4 cup milk so that it would mix with the pasta better.  Add the spinach when the pasta is almost ready, stir in and cook until it starts to wilt.  Drain pasta, toss with the vegetables and pasta, and you have Friday night pasta!

Creamy pasta goes best with a full bodied white like a chardonnay or white Rhone, or a fruity, medium bodied red.  I opted for the latter in the form of the 2006 Chateau du Trignon Cotes-du-Rhone ($13), which showed big fruit and nice structure--a good match, and a bottle I'd like to have again!