Thursday, April 25, 2013

Tagliatelle with Spinach, Mascarpone, & Parmesan

This week is the April Potluck at I Heart Cooking Clubs.  Even though the featured chef is Yotam Ottolenghi, for the potluck participants are able to choose a recipe from any of the eight previously featured chefs that the club has cooked.   Since Ottolenghi is the first chef that I've been cooking with for the club I wanted to branch out and try cooking something from one of the past chefs.  I decided to cook something from Jamie Oliver.  I saw this recipe and it looked so simple and easy, just the kind of recipe I needed this week!  This was so easy to make.  Taste-wise it was okay.  The kids ate it without complaint and my daughter even asked to take some for lunch the next day.  I felt it was kind of plain and needed something.  I have a bunch of Italian sausage in the freezer that I think when crumbled and browned would have gone really well in this dish.  Although I wasn't wowed by this dish, I was glad to have made something by Jamie Oliver and will be trying some of his other recipes out!


Tagliatelle with Spinach, Mascarpone, & Parmesan
recipe adapted from jamieoliver.com

Ingredients:
1 lb. fettuccini
olive oil
2 tablespoons butter
2 cloves garlic, peeled and sliced
baby spinach, washed thoroughly
sea salt
freshly ground black pepper
1/2 cup heavy cream
2/3 cup mascarpone cheese
2 handfuls Parmesan cheese, freshly grated

Directions:
Boil a large pot of water,  add pasta, and cook according to package directions. Meanwhile heat a frying pan over medium heat. Add a drizzle of olive oil, the butter, and garlic. When the butter melts, add the spinach and heat until wilted, approximately five minutes.  Season with salt and pepper to taste then add the heavy cream, mascarpone and a little ladle of cooking water from the pasta. Let this come to a simmer and then season again.

Drain the pasta, reserving some of the cooking water, then stir it into the spinach sauce. Add the Parmesan and toss everything together.  

Family Rating: 1 thumb up.

5 comments:

  1. Hi Nancy,
    My kids adore pasta! They would love this as well! Italian sausages crumbled into the pasta does sounds really good!
    Glad to know that your children enjoyed the pasta.
    Have a great weekend!

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  2. Yum! Pasta spinach and cheese ... the triumvirate in my kitchen! Looks wonderful!

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  3. I love a good pasta. I like your idea of adding something like sausage to it--I might have tossed in some capers ;-) It looks delicious and it's fun to be able to branch out and try the past chefs.

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  4. Yes, I can definitely see why the kids would love this one. Mine would too! It seems like a very cheesy and somewhat mild dish, perfect kid-friendly food. I do agree with you, I think some crumbled sausage would be great. I'm also a big fan of garlic so I probably would've doubled the garlic ;)

    Jamie Oliver also has a recipe called Baby Farfalle with Creamy Smoked Bacon and Pea Sauce. It's somewhat similar to this recipe you shared but it has little slices of bacon and peas instead of spinach. It was probably my favorite Jamie Oliver recipe back when we cooked with him before.

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  5. This is the kind of simple pasta dish I love for a quick mid-week dinner, and although it may not have exactly had the "wow" factor, it seems like a great dish to use as a springboard and pimp up with a few other tasty ingredients such as the crumbled sausage you suggested.

    Pleased you enjoyed cooking with Jamie.

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