Recipe: Pasta with Spinach and Sun-Dried Tomatoes

(picture to come soon)

I don't know what it is, but lately I've been eating a lot of spinach. At least I won't have an iron deficiency any time soon:) In my continued quest to work through all the grains in my pantry, I've moved on to pasta this week (I finished off my quinoa and basmati rice already). This recipe looked too good not to try, anyway!

ingredients:
1 cup vegetable broth
12 dehydrated sun-dried tomatoes
1 (8 ounce) package uncooked pasta
2 tablespoons pine nuts
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
1 clove garlic, minced
1 bunch fresh spinach, rinsed and torn into bite-size pieces
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese

directions:
1. In a small saucepan, bring the broth to a boil. Remove from heat. Place the sun-dried tomatoes in the broth 15 minutes, or until softened. Drain, reserving broth, and coarsely chop.
2. Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Place penne pasta in the pot, cook 9 to 12 minutes, until al dente, and drain.
3. Place the pine nuts in a skillet over medium heat. Cook and stir until lightly toasted.
4. Heat the olive oil and red pepper flakes in a skillet over medium heat, and saute the garlic 1 minute, until tender. Mix in the spinach, and cook until almost wilted. Pour in the reserved broth, and stir in the chopped sun-dried tomatoes. Continue cooking 2 minutes, or until heated through.
5. In a large bowl, toss the cooked pasta with the spinach and tomato mixture and pine nuts. Serve with Parmesan cheese.

This recipe was good, though not what I originally expected before reading the directions. I assumed it would be a cold pasta dish. That being said, the end result was a pleasant suprise!