Recipes

[lavendersage]

I came up with this recipe last night. My husband and I loved it.
I was thinking about making lasagna with a white sauce and spinach but didn’t feel like it, so I decided to make a side dish with those flavors.

Creamy Spinach Rigatoni

2 cups dry rigatoni
½ cup chopped onion
5 cups fresh spinach
couple pinches garlic powder
salt and pepper to taste
1 tablespoon of olive oil

Grease a 1 ½ quart baking dish. Preheat oven to 350. Boil rigatoni to al dente, drain and set aside. I poured a little olive oil on it to keep it from drying out.
In a skillet, saute onion in olive oil for a couple minutes then add spinach and cook until wilted but still bright green. Add salt, pepper and garlic powder to taste. When finished cooking, there will be some liquid in the pan. I just pushed the spinach to one side of the pan, away from the liquid.

Sauce:

3 tablespoons unsalted butter
3 tablespoons unbleached flour
1 ½ cup milk
couple pinches of grated nutmeg
black pepper to taste
pinch of cayenne pepper
¾ cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
½ block (4 oz.) grated Monterey jack cheese- divided

In a sauce pan, melt butter; add flour and cook and stir for about a minute.
Add milk and stir until smooth and thickened.
Add grated nutmeg, black pepper and cayenne pepper.
Stir in Parmesan cheese and half of the Monterey jack cheese.
Stir in cooked spinach and onions, but don’t add the liquid that comes from the spinach.
Fold in the cooked rigatoni. Pour all into a greased baking dish. Top with remaining Monterey jack cheese.
Bake, uncovered, for about 25 minutes or until cheese is lightly browned on top.