Brown Rice Pasta in Kale and Spinach Pesto

Growing up, there were certain rules of cooking , like: vegetables and pasta should be cooked till they are totally dead.

I’m not certain who made up that rule, but we all followed it.  Maybe some ancestor of mine had to do battle with a rogue carrot that tried to make its escape from the pot and had to be chased down with a cleaver and dishtowel.

Perhaps when they tried to bite into less-than-soggy pasta, it tried to bite back, so they wrestled it back into its hot bath till it waved a white flag.

Now, I like my pasta with a bit of a bite, and my veggies crisp.  And not all pasta sauce has to be red either.  Pretty sure that somewhere a great-great(great?) grandmother is doing a face plant.

This pasta recipe is nothing like any of my ancestors would have eaten.  First of all, I used brown rice pasta which, no matter how long you cook it, it does not get soggy.  This is a good thing, and a bad thing.  Good because it really stands up to the pesto sauce.  Bad because this pasta cannot, repeat cannot be eaten cold.  Well, it can, but you would have to be really hungry to want to choke it down.  After refrigerating this, it takes on the consistency of a piece of cardboard when eaten cold.  So now that I’ve gotten you really excited about trying this recipe…

Seriously, hot or warm, this pasta is delicious and the texture is spot on.  If you want cold pasta, use something besides brown rice pasta.  Or try one of my other recipes that are meant to be eaten cold.  I promise they are yummy as well.

Ingredients:

• 1 box brown rice pasta
• 2 cups lettuce mix, tightly packed (the mix I used was Kale and Spinach based, but had a bunch of other lettuces, making it a bit bitter tasting, so I added the basil to balance it with some sweetness)
• 1 cup loosely packed basil
• 3 teaspoons minced garlic
• 3 Tablespoons pine nuts
• 1 Tablespoon lemon juice
• 6 Tablespoons olive oil (1/4 cup plus 2 Tablespoons)
• salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

1. Cook pasta according to directions.  While it is cooking, make the pesto.
2. Put lettuce through salt and pepper into a high speed blender and puree till smooth.  Pour over drained  pasta and stir till well combined.

Serving suggestions:

• 1 package of mushroom
• 1 onion, cut in half and sliced thin

Add a splash of olive oil to a large skillet and heat over medium high heat.  Add the mushrooms and onions and sprinkle with salt to get them to release their liquid and caramelize them.  Turn heat to low and continue to cook till cooked through and golden.

or

• 1/2 green pepper, cut into strips
• 1/2 red pepper, cut into strips
• 1/2 yellow pepper, cut into strips
• 1/2 orange pepper, cut into strips
• 6 carrots, cut into thin strips
• 1/2 onion, thinly sliced (optional)

Toss the veggies in a bit of olive oil and either roast in a 425 oven for 20-30 minutes, stirring halfway through, or saute in a large pan on the stove.

Put veggies over the pasta  and serve immediately.

Enjoy!