Happy Tax Day, everyone!
Well actually, as a small business owner, I’m not sure there’s really such thing as a “happy” tax day. Yeesh.
I learned my lesson in procrastinating bookkeeping and tax stuff the hard way this year, and spent a good 80+ hours of the last month getting caught up on a year’s worth of receipts and invoices and bank statements and on and on and on. Every spring, I vow “never again” to let myself fall behind on accounting. And then every spring, I somehow find myself staring at piles of receipts and paperwork come tax time. Ugh, the worst.
Anyway, once I finally plowed through and handed everything over to my accountant, I celebrated by doing two much-needed things that afternoon:
1) I hired a bookkeeping service for 2015. (Best decision ever.)
2) And I made myself an enormous bowl of pasta. (Best comfort food ever.)
Oh man. When life is awesome and when life gets stressful, I always seem to turn to the same thing:
CARBS.
I guess there are worse vices in life. And hey, at least I’ve turned my cravings slightly healthier over the years, opting for more whole-wheat and grain-free carbs in life, often accompanied with a good helping of fresh veggies. But I’m a pasta-loving girl for better and for worse.
So when it came time to celebrate after hours upon hours of going cross-eyed staring at numbers on a page, I wanted nothing more than to get in my kitchen and whip up a huge, steaming pot of pasta.
I’d happened to run across a photo on Pinterest beforehand of a mushroom, tomato and spinach saute. So I decided to follow suit and whip those up with some red onions, oodles of garlic, a nice simple white wine sauce, and my favorite whole wheat pasta.
And then since it was a special occasion, I toasted up a big handful of my all-time favorite “sprinkles” — pine nuts, of course. Such a treat.
Anyway, this dish is nothing fancy and won’t win any awards for uber-creativity, but man it hit the spot. Especially when accompanied by a nice glass of malbec, and not followed by hours upon hours late into the night of bookkeeping. :)
Hope you all enjoy it as much as I did. And cheers to all of you other small business owners out there doing what you do!
Pasta with Mushrooms, Tomatoes & Spinach
- Prep Time: 5 minutes
- Cook Time: 25 minutes
- Total Time: 30 minutes
- Yield: 6 -8 servings
Description
This Pasta with Mushrooms, Tomatoes and Spinach is made with whole-wheat pasta, tossed with a simple white wine sauce, and is ready to go in less than 30 minutes.
Ingredients
- 1 pound whole-wheat pasta, cooked al dente according to package instructions
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 8 ounces of white button or baby bella mushrooms, sliced
- salt and pepper
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- half a medium red onion, peeled, quartered and sliced
- 5 cloves garlic, peeled and thinly sliced
- 2 cups (about 10 ounces) cherry or grape tomatoes, halved
- 1/2 cup white wine
- 3 large handfuls baby spinach leaves
- optional toppings: 1/4 cup toasted pine nuts and/or freshly-grated Parmesan cheese
Instructions
- Cook pasta in a large stockpot of generously-salted boiling water according to package instructions. Drain, once it reaches al dente.
- While the pasta water is coming to a boil, melt butter in a large saute pan over medium-high heat. Stir in mushrooms mushrooms and season with a pinch of salt and pepper. Saute for 4-5 minutes until they are browned around the edges and cooked through, stirring occasionally. Transfer mushrooms to a separate plate, and return saute pan to the heat.
- Add olive oil to the pan and heat for 30 seconds, or until shimmering. Add the onion and saute for 3-4 minutes, or until mostly soft, stirring occasionally. Stir in tomatoes and garlic and a few generous pinches of salt and pepper, and saute for an additional 2-3 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add in wine, and stir to combine, being sure to scrape up any browned bits on the bottom of the pan. Add in the spinach one handful at a time, stirring it in and waiting 1 minute or so until it is slightly wilted before adding the next batch.
- Once the spinach is wilted and the pasta is cooked and drained, pour the vegetable mixture in with the pasta and stir to combine. Serve warm, garnished with optional toppings if desired.
Notes
Adapted from Eat, Drink Paleo.
I made this tonight using a pound of mushrooms and thin slices of tri-colored peppers, but it still needed something. So I ended up sautéing up almost another pound of mushrooms, and more peppers, onions, garlic, spinach and wine, plus a half pound of Italian sausage to add into the left overs. Now, it’s very colorful and yummy! I sure hope this freezes well, since there are just the two us and we leave on vacation in a couple days. Thank you for a recipe that is helping to use up the veggies in my frig.
Thanks for sharing, Suzy, we appreciate you giving it a try!
We made this for dinner last night! Wonderful recipe! We felt like it needed a little kick so I threw in a handful of Crandberry/Pomegranite Craisins and gave it just enough sweet to offset a dry white wine. Thank you so much for another great dish!
Thanks for sharing with us, Brian — we’re so happy you enjoyed it!
Looks amazing! Like the ones, I’ve eaten in Italy on Delectable Destinations culinary tour.
Thank you Carol — we hope you enjoy it!
thanks-
this looks really good
and i have all the ingredients
except pine nuts
am allergic to nuts
am always wanting more fat and
protein in my diet this time of year
:O)
We hope you enjoy this Kathleen! :)
Made this tonight! Loved it! Made it with zoodles instead of pasta and added some shrimp. Will make this again for sue!
Hi Vanessa, we’re so glad you enjoyed this, and we think those zoodles and the shrimp sound like fantastic tweaks! :)
Sounds good – thank you.
I made this for tonight’s dinner. Although it had flavor, I think a pound of pasta was too much for the small amount of vegetables. Next time I will use only a 1/2 pound of pasta.
Amazing recipe <3 you can never go wrong with good ol pasta
x
I was an Econ major in college so anytime tax time comes around I feel like I have minor PTSD episodes of dollar signs, graphs with strange lines everywhere, and not having a clue on how to handle anything. I should also be much better but don’t we all love procrastinating? Why do today what you can put off doing tomorrow.
Anyways though….. this pasta. YESSS. It’s amazing what a bowl of carbs can cure. Pretty sure thats scientifically proven. At least that’s what I’m gonna tell myself so I can eat like 10 bowls of this. Pinned!! :)
Oh man is my hat off to you! And I hope you enjoy the pasta, 10 bowls and all! ; )
Gosh this looks yummy! Great way to use up some veggies in the fridge too! I think pasta and wine is perfect on stressful days like this one.
Thanks Jaime, hope you enjoy!