Home-Made Spinach Pasta with Tomatoes and Capers

For the last seven years, as long as I was in DC, feeling well, and had no spectacularly amazing plans, Monday nights I spent salsa dancing. It was my thing.

Unfortunately lately, those dancing nights have become more frustrating than fun. And so this past Monday I decided to stay home, make dinner, drink wine, and watch The Bachelorette.

For dinner, I decided to make Home-Made Spinach Pasta with Tomatoes and Capers. The recipe is insanely simple, and you can use store-bought pasta if you don't feel like making your own. To go with the pasta, I picked up a bottle of Aveleda Fonte Vinho Verde: it's one of my most favorite wines: fresh, slightly bubbly and goes well with most food.

Special Thank You to Jenn for the fabulous tomatoes.

Ingredients for the pasta (I used only 1/2 of the recipe for this recipe; stay tuned to see what I did with the remaining pasta!)

1/3 cup spinach leaves

1 tablespoon olive oil

1/4 cup water

1 egg

1.5-2 cups flour

1 teaspoon salt

Ingredients for the sauce

1 teaspoon olive oil

2 garlic cloves, sliced

4 small tomatoes, cut into wedges

1 teaspoon capers

4 basil leaves, torn

1 teaspoon lemon juice

Directions

1) In a food process puree spinach, oil and water.

2) In a bowl whisk an egg, add pureed spinach/oil/water and combine.

3) Add flour and salt and mix until a dough is formed.

4) Using a pasta machine roll out the dough and cut it into desired shape. [See my issues with my pasta machine]

5) Start boiling salted water for pasta. In the meantime, heat oil in a pan and add garlic. Cook garlic for 1-2 minutes. Add tomatoes and capers. Cook for 1-2 minutes. Turn the heat off.

6) In the salted water, cook pasta for about 3-5 minutes. Drain, add to the sauce.

7) Heat the sauce and pasta for 1-2 minutes, add basil and lemon juice, adjust the seasonings and serve!

Note: If you have cheese, USE it!