Friday, January 18, 2013

Arugula and Brie Pasta

I was an unusual kid. I never liked salads with greens, I guess that's not unusual, but I loved my vegetables and I absolutely loved broccoli. Like most kids, though, I also really loved pasta. As my tastes matured and I started to learn the beauty of a leafy salad I discovered the deliciousness of arugula. It has a peppery bite that adds to a salad rather than acting as a watery filler like some lettuces.

In 2011 I found this video from a Mark Bittman podcast for an arugula pasta. I was exuberant! A way to take a delicious peppery green and make it into a really heart meal. Out of convenience and ease I left out of the anchovies, but no matter what I did the dish never seemed to work out. The pepperiness just overpowered the dish and I couldn't achieve a balance.

Similarly I keep trying to use leftover amounts of brie to make a pasta, but it's too rich and often times the brie no matter how small I cut it and whatever else I tried the brie would all clump together. Finally this last week I had a stroke of inspiration: arugula, brie and mushrooms with pasta!

The brie provides cheesy richness while the arugula balances it with its pepperiness with the mushrooms sauteed in garlic give it the entire dish a nice earthiness. What you're left with is a cross between a salad and a cheesy pasta. If you like brie, mushrooms and arugula than I'm confident you'll like this dish.

Note: The key to this recipe is to save some of the pasta water. Lots of recipes call for this and I often ignore  it, but it really does help marry the pasta to the sauce. By tossing the brie with the pasta and the pasta water some of it melts and creating a sauce where no sauce existed.


Pasta with Arugula, Brie and Mushrooms

by Leran Minc
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 15 minutes

Ingredients (4-6 servings)
  • 1/4 cup olive oil
  • 1/3 pound mushrooms, sliced and cut in half
  • 3 cloves of garlic, minced
  • 1 pound of pasta (I used penne)
  • 4 ounces of brie (cut into 1/8" cubes)
  • 5 ounces of baby arugula
  • 2 tablespoons of good olive oil (extra virgin works, but if you have something fancy use it!)
  • 2 teaspoons lemon juice (or a few good squeezes of a lemon)
  • 2 teaspoons sea salt
  • 1 teaspoon ground black pepper
Instructions
1. Heat the olive oil over medium heat.
2. Saute mushrooms for 5 minutes until they begin to brown lightly and soften.
3. Add garlic and cook for an additional 10 minutes. Stirring often to avoid burning garlic.
4. Meanwhile cook pasta. Drain, but save pasta water.
5. Toss pasta with mushrooms, garlic, brie and 1/4 cup of the pasta water until brie begins to melt.
6. Add arugula, lemon juice, salt, pepper and additional olive oil and toss until arugula wilts slightly.
7. Serve with bread to make 6 servings or 4 servings alone.
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Seasonality of this dish: Arugula is a heartier green that while it isn't seasonal, it preserves its flavor much better out of season and transports better. If you're going to make a compromise to get some freshness in the middle of winter, arugula is a good way to go. Domestic mushrooms are always seasonal and are often produced locally. So anytime you can get arugula this dish works.

Approximate Cost of this Dish

1/3 pound of mushrooms $0.75
1 pound of pasta $1.99 (or less)
4 oz of brie $2.25
5 oz of baby arugula $2.99
1 lemon $0.50
Total= $8.48
Add the cost of olive oil, salt and garlic....~$10.00 or $2.00 per serving

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