I got some spinach the other day to make some more pesto with a different recipe, but as it turns out all my basil had gone bad. :(
So I looked up something else to do with spinach & came across this.

I used bowties instead because well, that's what I had.

Though I did go out and find some pancetta because the closest thing we had to that around the house was pre-cooked bacon. I didn't figure that would be close enough.


I got a little worried because the woman at the meat department of my grocery store didn't know what I was talking about. Thankfully the girl in the deli did and pointed me to the fancy cheese & other specialty items cooler.

I happened to have just as much spinach as I needed. That was pretty cool.


These colors are so pretty when they're all together.


I started to get a little worried when I realized there wasn't actually much of a "sauce" to this. Donnie seems to be attached to the idea that pasta has to have a sauce (at least that's the impression I've got before) but even I was afraid the pasta might be too dry or not have enough flavor to it. But I didn't even have to add any extra pasta water.


I loved the way the strong flavor of the pancetta countered with the mildness of the egg and noodles. I thought it was a really great combination. And not too heavy. It filled me up but didn't leave me stuffed.


I have more pancetta left over, and while I plan on searching around for more recipes, I'd love to hear any sugestions anybody may have!

More Livejournal inspiration here. The first version of this was with left-over lasagna stuff.

I remembered seeing this before while I was killing time. I took my left over ground beef (which was seasoned with some garlic powder and cilantro) and reheated it in a pan with the unused lasagna noodles that I tore into smaller pieces. I also made some pesto loosely based on this resipe. and just mixed it all together. It was pretty great.

Then I went back to find the original recipe that inspired me and saw there was cheese. So I wanted to try it that way.

I put some cilantro into the meat (still using ground beef, not pork. I don't really like pork that much.) again and a little thyme. Less garlic powder this time because I knew there was already a lot in the pesto.


I also happened to have some penne sitting around, so I used up the rest of that. Although, I did like the lasagna noodles better.


Once they were done I drained and threw them in with the meat.


Once everything got a little mixed together, I dumped some mozzarella on top & let it get all melty, stirring it up some more.


All done!


Oh, and a little parmesan on top. :)

Unless I mention otherwise, all my recipes are two servings-ish. A lot are roughly modified from larger serving recipes like this one.
I'm also getting better at not measuring exactly. Since most everything I did in the kitchen growing up was baking, that's a tough habit to break.


Angel hair pasta
1 lemon
1/2 cup of half & half
1/4 cup of grappa
parsley - maybe a 1/4 or 1/8 of a cup. I didn't measure.
salt
pepper
garlic powder

The water probably doesn't need to be put on right at the start. I didn't have any angel hair on hand (which surprised me) so I used spaghetti & even that was done before I was ready for it. Angel hair takes about two seconds to cook.

Zest the lemon & chop the parsley.


Cut the lemon in half & also cut the end off one half so it'll stand upright.
(upright if it were a whole lemon still)
You're going to get the segments out of there so you'll have to take a knife & cut the peel off (including the white part). Cut from top to bottom while it's standing up, or over a bowl if you're more talented than me so you can catch the juice.

When the peel's gone the membranes will need to be cut off of the segments so you're left with the pinwheel middle when it's all done. Set the segments aside & squeeze any juice left from the membranes into the juice bowl. Then take the other half of the lemon & squeeze it also.

heat up a pan and pour in the half & half, grappa and lemon segments. Bring it to a boil and then turn the heat down to a simmer. Let the sauce thicken some. If the pasta still needs to cook, remove the sauce from the heat.


When the pasta is ready (al dente for the angel hair. I thought the spaghetti could've used more time cause it didn't cook enough later) drain it and put it back in it's pan.

Return the sauce to the heat and add half of the zest and the lemon juice. You probably won't use all the juice you have. It should be about a tablespoon. I used more. I also threw in some of the parsley here.

Add the pasta to the sauce pan & mix it all together to coat the pasta well. Season with some salt, pepper and garlic powder.


[Oops. Oh, yeah. I'm totally smooth.]


After it goes on the plates, sprinkle it with the rest of the parsley and lemon zest.


It's funny how the lemon segments seem to just melt away into the pasta. I never noticed the texture of them. And that's great because I loathe pulpy texture.

Obviously, this has a very strong lemon flavor. Although, I still liked it & I'm not lemon's biggest fan. Or maybe I'm just not a fan of lemon showing up where I don't expect it to. Like in my cheesecake. If I want lemon flavor in cheesecake I'll get a lemon cheesecake. ....but I digress.