Penne Pasta with Sundried Tomatoes, Spinach & Feta

This is one of Bob’s and my favorite dishes. The first night I make it we eat it warm/room temperature. The next night we eat it cold. Sometimes we eat it standing in front of the open refrigerator with a fork in our hands! It seems it has an addictive quality.

The recipe doesn’t really have set amounts of ingredients. It’s very forgiving in that you can adjust what you like or don’t like. We happen to like it all. Go figure.

I do hope you like this dish as much as we do!

Penne Pasta with Sundried Tomatoes, Spinach & Feta

16 oz box of penne pasta
1 bag baby spinach leaves, washed and spun dry – remove stems if you’re anal like me
6 oz crumbled feta cheese (we like the sundried tomato & basil flavor)
Sundried tomatoes (packed in oil), sliced
Chopped garlic – roasted garlic is nice if you have it
Olive oil
Grated parmesan cheese
Toasted pine nuts

The cast of characters. Uh oh … looks like the olive oil and the parmesan cheese didn’t make it to the preview party. I’m sure they’ll catch up with us.

Cook the pasta according to package directions. (I generally use penne pasta, but the store was out of it. So I went with rigatoni. Bob and I both agreed we like the penne better.) Drain pasta and return to the pot.

While the pasta is cooking, grate the parmesan cheese and then toast the pine nuts in a small skillet. Be careful because they toast really fast! Watch them every single second! They’ll turn on you in a heartbeat. Please, learn from my experience.

Add the remaining ingredients, except the grated parmesan cheese and toasted pine nuts, to the pasta in the pot.

Mix well. I eyeball the olive oil. Don’t skimp on it because you want this to have a great mouthfeel. Add enough that it’s easy to mix but doesn’t look overly greasy. And use some of the oil from the tomatoes! That has great flavor!

Dish up a healthy serving and garnish with grated parmesan and toasted pine nuts.

This dish is so easy it’s crazy. And it’s so good it’s sinful! My mouth is watering just writing this. Really! Oh man, now I’m going to have to make this again to silence the craving.

You should whip up a batch too, and tell me what you think!