Pasta. Talk about universal and unifying. Everyone likes pasta, and if they don’t, then you can quickly weed them out from the group of people with whom you should associate, because they are clearly insane. When I moved in with a meat eater, we would make pasta most nights, because it was an easy dish that we could both eat. Sure, maybe we gained a little weight during those first few months, but it helped with dinner before we got adventurous and branched out to other dishes.
While there are many variations that we would do, most of our dishes would center around red sauce. This is mainly because Alfredo sauce generally grosses me out, and pesto sauce is often a little too overpowering for me. Recently though, I’ve branched out and started doing the unthinkable: making pasta without sauce. One of the dishes I’ve been making for years, but the other two are quite recent additions to my repertoire. Because I’m awesome, I’ll share them with you now.
Penne with Feta and Corn
This is the one that I’ve been doing for a while– ever since I had a similar dish at a restaurant. What I love about it is that these are usually ingredients I already have laying around the house (well, not “around the house.” Generally in the kitchen). We buy the super-sized jar of capers at Costco, so I often find excuses to use them.
While you’re boiling the water and cooking your pasta, saute the corn in the olive oil and garlic and capers (I usually grind some pepper in here too) in a large pan until the corn starts to caramelize. Add the pasta and feta cheese and toss together. The feta cheese will get all melty and delightful.
Variations:
Sometimes, if I’m feeling extra-fancy, I’ll saute some sun-dried tomatoes and/or artichoke hearts as well.
Spinach Tomato Pasta
Light, healthy pasta with just a few ingredients. I love spinach, but I’m not a big fan of it when it’s a) by itself, or b) overcooked and stringy. This spinach gets cooked just enough to soften it up, but since there isn’t a sauce, there’s not enough moisture to make it all goopy.
whop up the garlic and saute it in the olive oil on med-low heat. Slice the grape tomatoes in half and put them in the pan. Saute for about 3 minutes, then add the spinach. Add salt and pepper to taste. Saute until the tomatoes and spinach start to get soft. Toss in the pasta.
Cheese Tortellini with Olive Tapenade
This is something I just experimented with over the weekend. I found a really great recipe for olive tapenade, but I didn’t have any bread or crackers. I also didn’t have any pasta sauce or tomatoes, for that matter, so I decided to make up some cheese tortellini anyway and use the tapenade as a sauce. Tapenade is quite salty, so the cheese is key, since it cuts that a little bit.
While you’re cooking the tortellini, combine all other ingredients into a food processor and process until chunky. Toss in some pasta. Remember, a little goes a long way.
Clacked by Kona Gallagher 
on Sep 09, 2009 @ 11:15 EST5EDT
