Keeping it simple...

I spent some more time today doing a little prep work to get a head start on the holiday meal for tomorrow. Since it is just us two, we don't really do anything extravagant, but it will be nice to have a majority of it done. We do have to make enough though, so there are plenty of leftovers - the best part of course!

We kept dinner light and quick tonight so there wouldn't be much clean up to do - the kitchen will be ready to go without much work in the morning. The recipe, Penne with Spinach Sauce, was on the table in a flash since we just needed to wait for the pasta to get tender. As it cooks, a simple sauce is made from fresh garlic, goat cheese, cream cheese and tender baby spinach. The original recipe called for three cloves of raw garlic - I find garlic to be a little harsh raw and at three cloves I had a feeling that would be a bit much for us. To help mellow the flavor, I added the garlic to the boiling water when I added the pasta and let it cook for a couple minutes.

I then fished the cloves out and used the food processor to make short work of the sauce. This took just enough of an edge off so the flavor came through, but some of the bite was gone. The recipe also suggested to save a cup of the cooking liquid to thin the sauce - I only added a tablespoon or so and it was plenty thin enough, any more and it would have been soupy. The soft goat cheese brought a nice tang with the cream cheese adding a little substance to the creamy pesto-like sauce. With a sharp finish of fresh grated Parmesan, this pasta dish was a snap to prepare and was quite filling with a slice of the Onion and Fontina Beer Batter Bread on the side.

Recipes
Penne with Spinach Sauce