Healthy Gluten Free Pasta With Greens

I couldn’t believe it.  I sat this pasta down in front of my husband, who is an avid bolognese eater and avoider of vegetables, and he snarfed it down.  Whoah!  Happy dance, I got my hubby to eat his veggies again:)  First I want to talk about the pasta itself.  I used De Boles Gluten Free Multi-Grain pasta with brown & white rice flour, amaranth and quinoa.  I wouldn’t say the pasta itself was the best consistency, but that’s because I cooked it too long.  It was fine though, it just wasn’t al dente, which is my fault but the box said cook 6-7 minutes and I checked it at four!  It was already past al dente but not cooked so long it was mushy.  So - if you do buy this pasta- remember to check it often and before the four minute mark as mine was past al dente!  Also, if you’ll notice, the pasta did not stick together - it broke up into grade-school goulash.  I don’t mind this but when the pasta strand isn’t long and cool looking, my son isn’t intrigued to eat it.  I sort of felt like mom went ahead and cut it up for me so that I don’t have to twirl and get myself messy. 

The ingredients that went into this worked really well together - it was pesto-ish without actually being pesto and/or having to make pesto.  I’m going to diverge for a moment.  Did anyone watch the Top Chef episode where Fabio’s dish had too much pesto according to the judges?  I about fell off my chair.  How can you have too much pesto?  I love a good pesto so much I would bathe in it.  Mmmmm, you can  dish up too much pesto for me any time Fabio!!!   My only problem with making pesto is that basil is expensive and  pesto uses a lot of basil but when I try to grow it I kill it.  How do I kill basil when it grows like a weed?  Good question, it’s pretty sad.  I think maybe plants are aware of my negative additute about watering them.  I go to water them and try to talk and give love and it feels fake -really I feel a little ticked off knowing that this thing is going to die on me before producing squat.  Self-fulfilling prophecy.  Anyway - the chard (I used rainbow) brings a bite to the pasta dish but it’s negated by the balsamic vinegar and parm.  The crunch of the toasty pine nuts perhaps offsets any of the possible pasta consistency problems.  My husband ate it:)  Really, I’m talking it down, it was fabulous!!!

Ingredients:

• 1/2 box De Boles Multi Grain Pasta
• 1 fennel bulb
• 1 bunch rainbow or Swiss chard
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 shallot, minced
• 1/4 cup pine nuts (or as much as you’d like)
• 1/2 cup roasted tomatoes - I used grape, but they were more tart than I would like - so I picked around them - (if you want to add them, toss in olive oil and salt and roast in oven at 350 until wilted- about 15-20 minutes)
• 3/4 cup more or less freshly grated parmiggano reggiano
• Olive oil
• 1 bunch basil, coarsely chopped - about 3/4 ounce
• 1 bunch parsley coarsely chopped - about 3/4 ounce
• balsamic vinegar
• salt and pepper to taste

Method:

• Start water on the stove, adding salt optional
• Sautee fennel in olive oil on medium-high heat about 10 minutes - add chard and cook down until softened, continue cooking together - about 10 minutes or until fennel becomes more see-through and turns a little golden adding olive oil when necessary
• Add garlic and shallots cook a few minutes- and add a shot of balsamic vinegar - add pine nuts and  allow to toast a little
• When water starts boiling - add the pasta but check often - drain and add olive oil to pasta so it doesn’t stick
• Add parsley and basil, cook down - about 1-2 minutes
• Add pasta, more olive oil, salt, pepper, parm and tomatoes - toss well and serve - serves 2

Tagged as: amaranth, quinoa