A semi-healthy Italian dinner

La scoperta di un piatto nuovo è più preziosa per il genere umano che la scoperta di una nuova stella.
Brillat- Savarin

(The discovery of a new dish is more precious to human beings than the discovery of a new star)

Kate Spade Gwinnett Lane Line

I absolutely adore this fine china line by Kate Spade and Lennox. Perfect for serving up beautiful dishes like the one I'm about to share. I love Italian food but unfortunately I've found that many Italian dishes can be very heavy or fattening so I try to stick to the ones that contain a vegetable based sauce such as marinara or pomodoro sauce. However, I was recently searching for new recipes and came across one in which the sauce was made of spinach. Now before you go and close out this post read the rest because the recipe really turned out beautifully. It is a great way to sneak in some extra veggies while being absolutely delicious, and we could all stand to add a little more spinach to our diet. One of my close friends, Bethany, who knows her health stuff recently posted that we wouldn't need to take any extra vitamins if we would just eat spinach everyday. Spinach is a great nutritional addition just check out the amazing quantity of vitamins at the bottom of this post (courtesy of http://www.nal.usda.gov/ nutritional index). Along with the healthy part of the dinner I also decided to make something a little unhealthy. Lately I've been trying my hand at baking breads and I am currently in the process of making a sourdough starter. I was hoping to make sourdough bread tonight but unfortunately my starter wasn't quite ready so instead I tried out a simple baguette recipe I had found. The bread and pasta turned out perfect and the bread was surprisingly much larger than I expected. Both of the recipes are very cheap which goes to show that you really can save money by making simple things like bread at home. So here's to a night of both healthy and unhealthy dishes. I know these will be in my permanent rotation of fall-back-meals and I hope they become part of yours also.

Pasta with Spinach Sauce
By Giada De Laurentiis

Ingredients:

Doesn't this look gorgeous?

1 lb of your favorite pasta
2 garlic cloves*
2 ounces goat cheese
1 ounce reduced fat cream cheese
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
3 ounces fresh baby spinach leaves*
2 tablespoons freshly grated cheese*




Cook pasta until al dente
Remove pasta with a slotted spoon and place in a skillet
Reserve pasta water to thin sauce
In food processor process garlic until very small (don't want anyone to bite into a clove)
Add goat cheese, cream cheese, salt and pepper and process until smooth
Add spinach leaves and process until smooth
Add spinach mixture sauce to pasta and mix in skillet
Add pasta water as needed to thin the sauce
Grate fresh cheese on top and serve!
*please note I made changes to the original recipe, originally the recipe calls for 3 cloves of garlic, 6 oz spinach leaves and parmesan cheese, I decided to use 2 cloves and pecorino cheese. The recipe originally called for 3 oz of spinach leaves for the sauce and 3 oz chopped and added to the pasta, in an effort to stretch a buck and be able to make the recipe again soon I omitted the chopped leaves.

fresh baguette and pasta

A Simple Baguette

Ingredients:

1 cup of lukewarm water

1 tsp sugar

1 TBSP dried yeast

3 cups unbleached white flour

1 tsp salt

1 egg white

1 tsp cold water

In a small bowl mix together water and sugar
Sprinkle yeast on top and allow to sit for about 5 minutes until yeast is foamy
In another bowl mix together flour and salt
Add the water mixture to the flour mixture and mix together until combined
On a lightly floured surface knead the dough for about 5 minutes (should be smooth and elastic and feel slightly cool)
Shape dough into a ball and put into a clean and oiled bowl
Move dough around until covered with oil
Dampen a towel and cover the bowl with the towel
Place in a warm area to rise until doubled
(a good tip is to place this in an oven that has not been on it is the perfect climate to keep it somewhat warm)
Remove dough and shape into a long rectangle
Meanwhile preheat the oven to 375 and place a baking pan with a few inches of water in the bottom of the oven (this will create a humid environment typical of French ovens and will yield beautiful bread)
After forming dough into a rectangle roll up and tuck ends under
Place on a baking sheet seam side down lined with parchment paper
Let rest for 10 minutes
After 10 minutes make 3 sharp diagonal marks across the loaf and bake for 30 minutes
Meanwhile mix together the egg white and tsp of water
After baking 30 minutes baste with the egg white and bake for another 5-10 minutes or until the loaf sounds hollow when tapped
Perfect bread!

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Nutrient	Units	1.00 X 1 cup ------- 30g
Proximates
Water	g	27.42
Energy	kcal	7
Energy	kJ	29
Protein	g	0.86
Total lipid (fat)	g	0.12
Ash	g	0.52
Carbohydrate, by difference	g	1.09
Fiber, total dietary	g	0.7
Sugars, total	g	0.13
Sucrose	g	0.02
Glucose (dextrose)	g	0.03
Fructose	g	0.04
Galactose	g	0.03
Minerals
Calcium, Ca	mg	30
Iron, Fe	mg	0.81
Magnesium, Mg	mg	24
Phosphorus, P	mg	15
Potassium, K	mg	167
Sodium, Na	mg	24
Zinc, Zn	mg	0.16
Copper, Cu	mg	0.039
Manganese, Mn	mg	0.269
Selenium, Se	mcg	0.3
Vitamins
Vitamin C, total ascorbic acid	mg	8.4
Thiamin	mg	0.023
Riboflavin	mg	0.057
Niacin	mg	0.217
Pantothenic acid	mg	0.020
Vitamin B-6	mg	0.059
Folate, total	mcg	58
Folate, food	mcg	58
Folate, DFE	mcg_DFE	58
Choline, total	mg	5.8
Betaine	mg	30.8
Vitamin A, RAE	mcg_RAE	141
Carotene, beta	mcg	1688
Vitamin A, IU	IU	2813
Lutein + zeaxanthin	mcg	3659
Vitamin E (alpha-tocopherol)	mg	0.61
Tocopherol, gamma	mg	0.05
Vitamin K (phylloquinone)	mcg	144.9
Lipids
Fatty acids, total saturated	g	0.019
Fatty acids, total monounsaturated	g	0.003
Fatty acids, total polyunsaturated	g	0.050
18:2 undifferentiated	g	0.008
18:3 undifferentiated	g	0.041
Phytosterols	mg	3
Amino acids
Tryptophan	g	0.012
Threonine	g	0.037
Isoleucine	g	0.044
Leucine	g	0.067
Lysine	g	0.052
Methionine	g	0.016
Cystine	g	0.011
Phenylalanine	g	0.039
Tyrosine	g	0.032
Valine	g	0.048
Arginine	g	0.049
Histidine	g	0.019
Alanine	g	0.043
Aspartic acid	g	0.072
Glutamic acid	g	0.103
Glycine	g	0.040
Proline	g	0.034
Serine	g	0.031