Halve the pasta, double the veggies

This is my new way. For the classic rapini and shells, for example, I'd take an embarrassment of garlic, a head of rapini and a package of pasta. But I have seen the error of my ways. Forget the old school proportions. Take a half package of pasta and TWO heads of rapini. Not only will it be better for you, I guarandamntee that it will be more delicious, too. You may be increasing your prep time by a third, but you won't regret it.

All that to say that my proportions for this:








were perfect. Well, actually it was the previous version that was perfect, but this was close. Sitting on the subway trying to visualize my cupboards made me realize that aside from a grumpy sweet potato and dried legumes, I didn't have much. (Not having much meaning, of course, having five packages of pasta of varying sizes.) Later in the day, I did a search for something like "sweet potatoes" "pasta" and Google generously brought me to this recipe for penne with oven roasted sweet potatoes, pecans, and goat cheese.

And while I didn't have everything, I certainly had the key ingredients. The recipe's author highly recommended including the optional green beans. I thought she was crazy, but decided (after spotting a special on green beans at a stellar grocery store on the Danforth) that she was probably right, or at least not wrong, and anyway, I'm trying to add more vegetables to my diet, right?

It was amazing. I highly recommend it. I will not, however, include it on my list of simple recipes, just because there is an extra step that would have put me off in my previous incarnation. (Yes, Catherine, Michael and Scott, I will be posting those other recipes I promised.