I’ll eat my wooden spoon if you tell me that you weren’t a picky eater as a kid. Maybe you weren’t the pickiest eater on the face of the planet, like the little boy I baby-sat in high school. He’d eat his peas and carrots right alongside his chicken nuggets or mac ‘n cheese. But I’m sure there’s still some food you pushed around your plate or tried sneaking to your dog when you thought no one was looking, yet now you wonder why you ever let Fido eat all those tidbits. For my brother and me, it was onions in our pasta sauce.
We turned up our noses at their texture. Our naïve little taste buds didn’t miss the flavor they brought to the dish, and our mouths much preferred the tomato sauce without any little slimy onion bits. Mom was a patient soul to cater to our tastes without complaining, and our marinara sauce never contained onions, even though she and Dad all but hated their sauce without.
While today, I’ve grown rather fond of onions—provided they’re thoroughly cooked, of course—I still occasionally take a trip down memory lane and make an onion-free pasta sauce. This one is so tasty that I almost forget it doesn’t have any of that subtly sweet onion flavor!
Pasta with Basic Tomato Sauce and Spinach
serves 2
1½ c. dry pene pasta
1 large garlic clove, minced
1 jar diced tomatoes, undrained
½ tsp sugar
½ tbsp dried basil, or ¼ c. fresh chopped basil
3 large handfuls of baby spinach
¼ c. grated Parmesan cheese
- Bring a medium pot of water to boil. Add pasta and cook according to package directions. Drain and set aside.
- In a medium saucepan, heat 1 tbsp olive oil over medium heat. Add garlic and sauté for 1 minute, or until fragrant. Add diced tomatoes, sugar, and basil. Bring to a simmer and let cook, stirring occasionally, for about 10 minutes while the sauce thickens.
- Once sauce has almost reached the desired consistency, add in the spinach and stir frequently until it has completely wilted. Season with salt and pepper. Add cooked pasta to the pan and stir to evenly coat with the sauce. Serve immediately and top with Parmesan.
This post made me smile as we have our very own picky eater in our house. Today, we enjoyed Pasta Fresca from Noodles & Company (not sure if they’ve made it west yet), and my darling spouse and I had to pick out ALL the “slimy” onion bits (with that great flavor) so the Cute Patoot would eat his carbs! 😉
He’ll definitely thank you someday when he has to do the same thing for his kids! I didn’t think we had a Noodles & Company out here, but it turns out there’s two within 20 miles of me! Once I get a break from my busy and hectic schedule, I’ll have to take a drive out to one of them and give it a try. Any recommendations on dishes?
Cool! They originally started in Boulder, I believe, or somewhere in Colorado. My favorite is the “trio” of a small japanese pan noodles with tofu and the thai curry soup. They put lots of veggies in the soup, and you can ask them to switch out the soup’s rice noodles for whole wheat linguini if you like. Their salads are nice but kind of heavy on the pasta. Bko prefers the indonesian peanut saute (with tofu). Stay away from the tomato soup – way too much salt.
If you need another distraction of the non-food variety, a very funny video came through my box today, a send-up of Lady Gaga’s Bad Romance just for the biochemists out there. I thought you might laugh at the lab references:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fl4L4M8m4d0
Thanks for making me smile with the blog!
Mmm that sounds really good. I’m looking up the driving directions right now! I actually haven’t had much tofu (there’s some in my fridge right now, waiting for me to decide what to do with it), so those pasta dishes may give me some much-needed inspiration.
That’s hilarious!! I can’t believe how witty that was, especially for a 5-minute song! Thanks for sharing those laughs with me.
My pleasure! I’m glad you’re enjoying it.