Recipe for Market Pasta

For my French summer, I love eating lighter meals for dinner. The fresh pasta I buy at Le Marche is very delicate, so it makes for a meal that is so wonderfully fresh and lightweight.

Let me try to remember remember what I did, so I can share this rustic recipe with you now! Do not fear – the recipe seems long but if you do this once, you’ll now have a method you can use a thousand new ways.

Market Pasta

1 ball fresh pasta noodles (tagliatelle, linguine, spaghetti, etc)

1 Tbs butter

3 Tbs extra-virgin olive oil

1 shallot, diced

1 ripe Roma tomato, seeded, diced

1 clove garlic, minced

Diced zucchini, about ½ cup

1 cooked/grilled sausage, cut in small pieces

Juice of one fresh lemon

White or rose’ wine, up to 1 cup

Fresh herbs, minced, optional

Fresh spinach leaves, large handful

Extra-virgin olive oil, for finishing pasta

Freshly grated Parmiagiano cheese, optional

Freshly ground black pepper, optional

Fill large pot almost full, with water. Cook over high heat, covered. The pot of water ought to be boiling by the time the sauce is prepared, so that the pasta may cook.

In medium pan, prepare sauce by melting butter with oil over medium-high heat. Cook diced shallot until soft, about 2 minutes. Add diced tomato and cook another 2 minutes, add garlic. Do not let garlic brown or burn, cook only about 1 minute, then add sausage and zucchini. Stir to combine well and add lemon juice and some wine. Add fresh herbs if using. Stir to create a chunky sauce, adding a little more wine gradually to keep ingredients always cooking in liquid.

When water boils, add pasta and stir with fork to separate strands completely. Cook for only about 2 minutes or until just al dente’, do not allow to get mushy. As pasta cooks, spoon some of the starchy water (with foam) into prepared sauce, and stir sauce to heat through. The starchy water will thicken the sauce.

Place fresh spinach leaves in serving bowl; this will provide the bed for the pasta.

When the pasta is just cooked, transfer it all (just the pasta, not the water) with a pasta fork, into the prepared sauce. Stir the pasta through the sauce gently (in Italy, this is literally called saucing the pasta) until coated well. Keep tossing gently until almost all sauce is absorbed.

Gently transfer sauced pasta to bowl, topping spinach leaves. Drizzle with olive oil, and top with grated cheese and freshly ground pepper if desired.

Eat pasta by stirring the spinach, now steamed from the hot pasta, through the noodles to enjoy delicious nutrition.

Makes 1 serving; recipe will multiply perfectly for additional servings.