March 24 – March 30, 2025

Monday:                              Roast Pork Loin and Apples w/ Braised Red Cabbage

Tuesday:                             Creamy Chickpea Pasta with Spinach and Rosemary

 

Wednesday:                        Rotisserie Chicken Soup

Friday:                                 Baasta iyo Suugo Tuuna

(a Somali staple, as I’m  sure you know)  Pasta with Tuna and Spices)

Saturday:                              Sausage and Fennel Pizza

Eat More Pasta and Lose Weight

If you’ve been to Italy, you know that Italians are seriously slimmer than Americans.  This is not just in urban areas, where most Americans visit, but all over Italy.  And here’s the thing – we Americans eat only 20 pounds of pasta per capita per year while the Italians eat 50 pounds per capita.  So, I don’t think it’s a leap to suggest that if we ate more like Italians, we’d be in better shape.  And that means eating more pasta.

This is not simply a preemptive defense of offering yet another pasta recipe, but I have to admit that it’s also not a sincere attempt to disseminate dietary advice.  That would be the pot calling the kettle chubby.  At the end of the day (and that’s surely the most dangerous time to be snacking), your dietary issues are up to you.  I’m just trying to tell you what tastes good.

Sorry for this brief post (though not sorry, if you’d prefer briefer posts – in fact, somewhat miffed that you don’t appreciate my prolixity).  But I am under the weather – perhaps just really bad allergies, perhaps a fairly bad cold.  But whatever it is, the fact that it’s warmer in Pittsburgh and even, on occasion, sunny, makes it feel worse.  I should be out there playing bad golf.  But here I am, inside, sneezing, going through $145 worth of Kleenex, drinking the gag-making Alka-Seltzer Plus,* and writing about the marvelous pasta we had last week.

• I do, however, enjoy watching the two tablets fizz as they dissolve, though this strange predilection has nothing to do with this week’s recipe.  Still, blathering around like this helps me to get started and interested even as my eyes are watering and drooping.  I need a nap, but I’m soldiering on for you.

The recipe below for creamy pasta with chickpeas and spinach is so satisfying that you must be careful not to give up your job or any of the tougher goals in your life and devote yourself solely to making and eating this dish. This is not only a luxuriously tasty dish it’s also cheap and you probably have the ingredients in your pantry and refrigerator already.

One final thing – the addition of lemon juice at the end of the cooking is really important in this recipe.

    

CREAMY CHICKPEA PASTA WITH SPINACH AND ROSEMARY

(adapted from Alexa Weibel, NYT Cooking)

Timing:                                              30 minutes or so

Ingredients:                                            Serves 4

1 14-ounce can of chickpeas drained and rinsed, if you like.  We like the chickpea liquid that clings to the drained chickpeas.

6-ounce bag of baby spinach

12 ounces of spaghetti or bucatini – I’d go for the spaghetti, a little easier to handle. 

[Note: If you cook a whole 16 oz. box of pasta, this will still work.  It’s better with about 12 ounces and you can just guess at what ¾ of a box is.  I do find it annoying when recipes call for less or more than a standard supermarket box of dried pasta – but, hey, complications like this keep you on your toes and make cooking more of an art than a chore.]

2 teaspoons finely chopped rosemary – and a bit more, or you can use parsley for garnish and a nice, fresh addition to the taste.

1 cup heavy cream

½ cup finely grated parmesan (plus more for serving, if you like)

Large shallot, finely chopped

2 garlic cloves, finely chopped (I used maybe ½ clove)

¼ cup olive oil

½ teaspoon Aleppo pepper or ½ teaspoon red pepper flakes

Kosher salt and ground black pepper

Lemon wedges for serving

Prep:

Chop the rosemary, shallot and garlic

Assemble the other ingredients

Drain the chickpeas

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil over high

Cook:

One of the keys to this dish is caramelizing the chickpeas – in a wide, deep skillet (you’re going to finish the pasta in this skillet, so you’ll need some volume) heat the oil over medium-high or just a bit lower if you have a high btu burner.

Add the chickpeas, rosemary and Aleppo pepper or red pepper flakes, then season generously with salt and pepper and cook, stirring occasionally, until the chickpeas start to caramelize and pop – maybe 6 minutes.  Use a slotted spoon to transfer half the chickpeas to a bowl and reserve those for garnish.

Now reduce the heat in the skillet to medium and then add the shallots and garlic, seasoning with salt and pepper and cook, stirring from time to time, until softened.  Now add the heavy cream and cook for about 3 minutes – it should be slightly thickened.

Off the heat, stir in the spinach and season to taste with salt and pepper.

Now add the pasta to the boiling water, reduce the heat to medium and cook until a few minutes short of al dente – maybe 5 or 7 minutes (look at the pasta package).

Do not drain the pasta, but transfer it directly from the water to the skillet with the spinach and cream sauce.  Add a cup of pasta water and the parmesan and cook over medium-high, stirring vigorously with some tongs, until the noodles are al dente.  Add more pasta water if needed.

Serve:

Transfer pasta to bowls, top with reserved chickpeas, rosemary (or parsley) and ground black pepper and serve with lemon wedges and tell everyone to squeeze the wedges atop the pasta. 

• I do, however, enjoy watching the two tablets fizz as they dissolve, though this strange predilection has nothing to do with this week’s recipe.  Still, blathering around like this helps me to get started and interested even as my eyes are watering and drooping.  I need a nap, but I’m soldiering on for you.

The recipe below for creamy pasta with chickpeas and spinach is so satisfying that you must be careful not to give up your job or any of the tougher goals in your life and devote yourself solely to making and eating this dish. This is not only a luxuriously tasty dish and it’s cheap and you probably have the ingredients in your pantry and refrigerator already.

One final thing – the addition of lemon juice at the end of the cooking is really important in this recipe.