Bacon Tomato Spinach Pasta with Garlic Crumb Topping.

This works equally well as a vegetarian dish; just omit the bacon.   The garlic breadcrumbs are what make this a winner.

 

Start with some Italian bread, a couple of cloves of garlic (hard to see them in this photo) and some good olive oil.  Slice off a hunk of the break and slice off the crusts.  Cube the bread until you have ½ a cup of bread cubes.  Set them aside. 

 

Put the garlic into your food processor.

 

Give it a couple of pulses until the garlic is nicely minced. 

 

Add the bread crumbs and let loose with 10 one second pulses.

Put 1 tsp of olive oil in a non-stick skillet over medium heat. 

Add the bread crumbs and cook about five minutes, stirring frequently…

…Until they are nicely browned.  Empty the skillet so the bread crumbs don’t burn and set the crumbs aside.

For the pasta you’ll need 1 cup grape tomatoes, ½ tsp sugar, a good sized leek, some white wine, chicken broth, red wine vinegar, red pepper flakes (I didn’t have any flakes so I used crushed red pepper—it’s a LOT more assertive than the red pepper flakes so keep that in mind.), ¼ package of spaghetti (1 lb package) 1 cup fresh spinach leaves—don’t smush ‘em but really pack ‘em in there and some fresh thyme.        

If you have nothing against meat, a couple of slices of bacon, diced and cooked until crisp.

Before you do anything else, put a pot of water on the burner so it come to a boil.  Timing is importanat in this recipe.

You’ll need to slice the tomatoes in half.  Someone told me about a trick to slice them all at once.  It only works if your knife is very sharp.  Place the tomatoes on a plate.

Place another plate on top of it.  You’re supposed to put the top plate on upside-down, but my plates wouldn’t work that way.  

You can see the tomatoes between the plates waiting to be vivisected.

Don’t squish your tomatoes, but hold the top plate steady and using your sharpest knife slice between the plates.  Does it work?

Mostly….two tomatoes escaped the blade and needed individual attention which is still better than slicing all of them.  My biggest gripe is they didn’t slice evenly.  Some were sliced in half, some just had a quarter of the tomato shaved off.  Your plates may work better than mine and give you perfectly bisected tomatoes.

 

Thinly slice the leek and separate the little rings.  Keep going until you have ½ cup.

Mince the thyme.  You’ll just need a few sprigs—your target is ¼ tsp.

Heat 1 tsp olive oil in the non-stick skillet over medium heat.  Add the tomatoes and 1/2 tsp sugar.

Cook  for about five minutes, stirring every now and then, until they start to brown. 

Add the leeks.

 

Cook another 3 or 4 minutes until they are wilted.

Add ¼ cup of the white wine.

Simmer…

… until almost all of the liquid is evaporated.

Add ½ cup chicken broth, 1 tsp of the red wine vinegar and ¼ tsp of pepper flakes.  If you’re using crushed pepper, use your best judgment.  I went ahead and used ¼ tsp anyhow and Oh, Helen! The final dish would get 2 chilis next to it on a menu to warn you of the heat factor.  Tasty?  You betcha.  Does it get your attention?  Damn skippy. 

 

Cook about 5 minutes until liquid reduces by a third or so.

After adding the broth to the skillet put 4 oz of dry pasta and ½ tsp salt into the boiling water and cook 9 or 10 minutes (adjust time if you use a different kind of pasta.)

 

Two minutes before the pasta is done add the spinach and thyme to the skillet.

If you’re me, add the bacon, too.

When the pasta is done don’t drain it.  Using tongs or a pasta scoop, transfer the cooked pasta to the skillet.  I used the pasta doohickey but switched to tongs for the next step, tossing the pasta, spinache, tomato mixture until the spinach is wilted. 

 

Divide into two plates and top each with the garlic bread crumbs.  Mmmm delicious Bacon-Spinach-Tomato Pasta with garlic crumb topping!