Sunday, August 2, 2009

Pappardelle with arugula, tomatoes, and blue cheese

This dish is so easy to make (literally 10 minutes max), is chock full of vitamins, presents beautifully, and tastes delicious!

Again, the measurements below are quite flexible. You can increase or decrease the amount of all the ingredients depending on your preference. Please just use them as guidelines.

Ingredients
Your favorite blue cheese (5 oz)
cherry, grape, or small Roma tomatoes (1 box)
arugula (1 salad bag)
pasta (16oz box)

Melt the blue cheese with a small amount of milk (~1 to 2 T) in a pan over medium heat (I used Roquefort this time around, but any blue cheese works)
Meanwhile, heat up a pot of boiling water and begin cooking the pasta according to the box's instructions.
Stir around the milk/cheese mixture until the cheese is melted and incorporated into the milk. When the pasta is done, add it to the cheese sauce and toss until incorporated. Throw in the whole bag of arugula.


Shut off the heat and quickly toss the arugula with the pasta. The arugula should wilt from the heat of the pasta but still stay brightly green.

Add tomatoes, top with fresh ground pepper, and serve! Literally, five minutes! And blue cheese lovers will dig the dish!

Jen's Notes

- salt levels vary a lot between different blue cheeses, so definitely don't add salt until you've made sure you that the sauce needs it

- if you prefer the tomatoes to be more cooked, you can add them to the pasta first and then toss in the arugula. Again, this recipe is really flexible. Play with it!


You can optionally add sauteed chicken breast to this dish if you want to add meat.

For those of you who don't like blue cheese

I actually fall into this camp. My husband loves this dish, but I actually make it without blue cheese. Instead of blue cheese, I saute 3-4 cloves of crushed garlic with olive oil. After the garlic is fragrant (1-2 minutes), I add the tomatoes and cook for ~1 minute. I then add the pasta, toss with arugula, and add salt and pepper to taste.

3 comments :

  1. Yum! Perfect dish :) Would showcase homemade pasta perfectly!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Yum! Perfect dish :) Would showcase homemade pasta perfectly!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Wanna bet me the garlic-olive oil version wouldn't work with some feta cheese?

    ReplyDelete