deluxe salad + delicious pasta = friends licking their plates!

When was the last time you invited someone into your home? Held their coat while they removed their shoes, watched as they perused your collection of books, and smiled as they devoured the food you spent a few hours making? I’ll be candid and say that I don’t invite many friends over, not because I don’t want to expose them to the cruel injustice that is my Pepto bathroom, but an invitation implies an implicit trust. It’s a certain kind of embrace. One that says, I’m allowing you in. Here I am, vulnerable. Can you see me?

This evening, my dear friend Summer and her husband Graham came over for a long, overdue dinner and we mused over the fact that friendships here, in New York, are sometimes difficult to cultivate. Everyone’s frenetic. Everyone’s calculating commuting time. Everyone’s hop-stop’ing it. Thinking strategically. And although my friends live an hour crosstown (Brooklyn is indeed that large), we don’t think twice about paying each other a visit. We make the investment, and we have a stronger friendship because of this.

Since I set our date long before I committed to start my new job (my new life!) tomorrow, I had to plan the menu in advance. When entertaining for friends it’s key to keep it simple, fix what you know, plan ahead. I used to have elaborate, Elizabethan parties, where I had scores of exhausting appetizers, and I slaved over the the food even as friends trickled in, unwound their scarves.

If you are this person, STOP NOW. Your friends already love you, you don’t need to make the last supper. As my friend is pregnant I had to be aware of her dietary limitations, and I cleared the dinner menu with her in advance. Lots of greens, protein, and what every human being deserves to have at their table: A HUGE BOULE. (Parenthetical: We all wondered aloud how best to eat the BOULE, and decided to tear into it with abandon, as we are the familiar kind). So I fixed one of my favorite couples a delicious salad and whole wheat spaghetti with sautéed apple sage sausage, sundried tomatoes, spinach, toasted almonds, garlic and spinach. I love this dish because it not only has so many flavor combinations, but also texture plays. The crunch of the almond, which compliments the whole wheat pasta, juxtaposed with the creamy, nutty gruyere. The flavors meld beautifully, and we all had SECONDS and THIRDS. Divine, right? Let’s delve in!

INGREDIENTS
1lb whole wheat spaghetti (linguine/fettucini are fine substitutions)
2 sausage links (sweet sausage or apple/sage are fine, but don’t use hot sausage), casings removed
1-1 1/3 cups of sundried tomatoes, packed in olive oil
2 tbsp sundried tomato oil
1 1/2 cup of fresh basil, packed (divided)
2 garlic cloves
1/2 cup blanched, slivered almonds (divided)
1 cup of grated gruyere
3-4 cups of fresh spinach
1 pint of grape tomatoes
1 bag of pre-washed arugula
1 bag of pre-washed mesclun greens
Salad dressing of choice
Pecorino Romano cheese to dress pasta

Serves 3-4 people, generously.

DIRECTIONS
In a large, dry saucepan, toast all of your almonds until they turn golden brown. Divide the almonds in half, set aside. In a large bowl, toss your arugula, mesclun, 1/2 cup of basil leaves, and tomatoes. I tend to like a mixed salad because of the flavor combinations (the peppery arugula juxtaposed with the tangier mesclun), but use the greens you enjoy. Set the salad bowl aside. Do not dress the salad until you’re ready to serve, as the leaves will wilt. Not a good situation for all parties involved.

In a large saucepan, sauté the sausage (removed from it’s casing) sundried tomato-infused olive oil until golden brown. At this time, bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add the pasta and stir.

Two Asides: Do not add olive oil to the pasta water (Martha Stewart, I love you, but you were perhaps high while giving new cooks this advice). It’s a waste of money and does nothing to season or separate your pasta. Pasta clumps because you either don’t have enough surface area for the noodles to separate (resolution: bigger pot) or you’re not stirring your pasta. Secondly, do not cook your pasta according to the instructions on the box. Once you’ve gone to the gummy, you can never go back. Gummy, my friends, is the point of no return. I’m of the al dente school, so I cook my pasta 1-2 minutes under the instructions, which vary by pasta and brand.

Once the sausage has browned, add the spinach leaves and allow for them to wilt. Add the minced garlic. Once the pasta is al dente, drain, and add immediately to the saucepan. Toss and allow for the pasta to absorb all of the sausage, oil, spinach and garlic. Add the diced sundried tomatoes, chopped basil, shredded gruyere (I use a box grater), the remainder of toasted almonds. Serve immediately.

Recipe Note: NEVER, EVER, NEVER add your sauce to a plain bowl of pasta; you’ll lose so much flavor. You always want to add your hot, slightly damp noodles to the saucepan in which your ingredients have been melding. You want to scrap out the bits from the bottom of the pan, and you’ll notice a delicious golden sheen to your pasta.

This entry was posted on Sunday, November 8th, 2009 at 8:55 pm and is filed under foodie gal. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.