BROWN BUTTER BALSALMIC BOW TIE PASTA

Sorry, no pizza today, we are headed out of town, i will do a pizza on monday or tuesday!

Pasta is pretty close though and what a name right? i'm thinking i should call it Brown Butter Balsalmic Bow tie Basta. What do you think? i made this a few nights ago and i asked the man to be very specific about his criticism of the dish. Do you like it? Does it need anything? Would you change anything? Salt okay? More spice? I'm sure [the man] just wanted to eat in peace rather than be bothered with a billion questions. Eventually he looked up at me and said, "i would change one thing." "what is that?" i responded. "Warm sourdough bread!" i gasped. i failed....ahhhh, he was right! it would have been perfect, but you know what, it didn't happen. we didn't have warm sourdough bread or french bread or any bread with dinner (and it was still delicious). But a word of advice before hand if you make this. It would be even better with warm bread of any sort! He said the pasta was great alone, but we decided together, that warm bread would just step it up one more notch. I'll post a great french bread recipe next week. I have no yeast in my house, so i need to go to the store.

This was my first attempt at a brown butter sauce, so if i have it all wrong i apologize to all of you "real" cooks and chefs out there, but it tasted great, so that is all that mattered to me and my rumbling belly. All in all, this was a yummy dish. Next time i think i would add more spinach, but that is just because i LOVE vegetables. It is an easy dish. The only things that require time are cooking the onion and watching the butter sauce.

1. Chop 1 Onion. (pretty easy right.)

did you know that if you wear contact lenses onions don't make you cry. i discovered that one morning when i was wearing my glasses and i thought i was going to die or i had an overly potent onion, but come to find out, it is almost like they act as a shield. So if there is someone in your house that wears contact lenses, have their all time job be "onion chopper." 

2. Place 1 Tbsp of butter in a pan and put on the stove over medium heat. Add onions and cook until they brown. (i salt my onions with about a 1/2 tsp salt.) The onions will begin to caramelize and you will notice that color will start to accumulate on the bottom of the pan. 

3. Once the onions are done cooking and have gotten golden brown, add 1 Tbsp of balsalmic vinegar and cook an additional minute, while scraping the color off the bottom of the pan (this is called "deglazing" aka getting all the delicious flavor off the bottom of the pan using a liquid.) once the vinegar starts to evaporate stop cooking. Remove from heat and set aside. (i put mine in a bowl, so i could use the same pan for the butter sauce.) Below are the finished onions with vinegar. YUM!

The onions take a while to cook, and you don't have to stir constantly so feel free to do other things while that is going on. clean the kitchen, chop the spinach and mince the garlic.

i use so much garlic i buy it in a jar. (i know it is better fresh, but this, for me, is WAY easier.)

 

while our onions cooked, we cleaned, took pictures, kicked [the pup] outside for chewing up [the little one's] toy! i snuggled with an over tired baby. i think i folded some laundry and tried taking pictures of my bike. (not like any of that matters) but i just gave that as an example that while some things do take time in cooking, you can still do other things while it is going on.

([the pup] is going to be the death of me...she thinks [the little one's] toys are hers and [the little one] thinks the dogs toys are hers...]

4. Place a large pot of water on the stove with 1 Tbsp of Salt and bring to boil.

5. Cook Pasta according to package instructions.

6. While water is coming to a boil and pasta is cooking, make your Brown Butter Sauce.

7. Place 5Tbsp of butter in a pan over medium heat. (it would probably be best to clean the pan first, but i'm too lazy for that.) whisk often.

8. The butter will start to foam and then subside. you will notice the aroma become almost nutty and small brown flecks will start to form. This part is critical, it can go from brown to BURNED very quickly, so keep a close eye on it.

9. When it is brown and nutty and beautiful and you just want to drink the whole thing, remove from heat. i removed it from the heat and added the 1 Tbsp of garlic. The butter was hot enough to cook the garlic without any additional heat. Be careful though, it splatters when you add it to the hot butter, so it might be smart to let it cool for just a minute.

10. Drain Pasta

11. Mix everything together. (pasta, butter sauce, onions, and additional seasoning)

12. Serve topped with parmesan cheese and crushed red pepper for some spice.

13. ENJOY!

INGREDIENTS

1 onion chopped

2 cups spinach chopped

1 Tbsp garlic minced

16 oz pasta

1 tsp garlic powder

1 tsp onion powder

1/2 tsp pepper

1 tsp salt

Crushed red pepper

Parmesan cheese

6 Tbsp butter

1/2 tsp salt in onion

1 Tbsp salt in pasta water

INSTRUCTIONS

Caramelizing 1 chopped onion over medium heat in 1 Tbsp butter. 

Chop spinach, mince garlic

When onions are almost done place a pot of water on the stove and bring to boil for the pasta. salt the water with 1 TBSP of salt. Once boiling, cook pasta according to package instructions.

When onions are nice and brown and sweet and caramely add 1 Tbsp balsalmic vinegar and cook an additional minute. Remove from heat and set aside.

Place 5 Tbsp butter in pan on medium heat. whisk frequently. The butter will foam up and then subside, keep whisking and watching butter, it will begin to smell almost nutty (it reminds me of caramel) light brown specks will form at the bottom of the pan. you can feel them forming to as you whisk. once it reaches the nutty point, remove from heat, so it does not burn. it can go from good to burnt very quickly, so be watchful.

Add garlic to cooling butter. the butter is so hot it will cook the garlic sufficiently. be careful while adding it to the hot butter, it may splatter.

Once pasta is finished cooking, add spinach, onions, sauce and seasoning (salt, pepper, garlic and onion powder). Stir and serve with red pepper flakes and Parmesan cheese. and of course warm bread!

VARIATIONS FROM ORIGINAL RECIPE

you can add additional vegetables and can season your butter sauce with various fresh herbs (basil, sage, thyme). mix it up and let me know what you come up with!