2 very EASY pastas
Creamy spinach sauce + Orzo salad with roasted vegetables
If we’re talking seasonality, right now (where I live in NJ) is nearing the end of spinach season and approaching the beginning of pepper and cucumber season. I’ve been making this creamy spinach pasta with beautiful bunches of mature spinach from my farmers market. The orzo salad is going to get even better when I’m able to get peppers and cucumbers there too. Really fresh produce just uplevels any recipe, especially when the vegetables are the main event like in these two pastas. If you’re buying spinach at the supermarket I suggest looking for a bunch or bag of mature spinach, I like it better than baby spinach for this. One of the stores I shop at has a 10 ounce bag labeled “Cooking Spinach”.
The best part of either of these pasta recipes… no surprise here… they can be made ahead. The orzo just gets better as it sits in the fridge. And the spinach sauce makes a lot. I store it in a jar in my fridge and toss it with warm cooked pasta for a few nights in a row for my kids and as a side to protein for my husband and I. No one has complained yet. The spinach sauce is really creamy and garlicky, and doesn’t taste of spinach at all really making it super palatable for kids. Both these recipes are at the bottom of this email and visible to paid subscribers.
Onino Chili Crunch
My agent texted me one day with a photo of her lunch drizzled with what looked to me like chili crisp or crispy chili oil. And she said “are you loving Onino too?!”. I told her I didn’t know about it to which she responded, “order now. and do yourself a favor and order 2 jars right off the bat.”. GLAD I HEEDED HER ADVICE. I’m addicted. It’s the best chili crunch/ chili crisp I’ve tasted to date. It’s a little smoky, not too spicy, salt and sweet. Trust me on this. Just order it. I know there’s a charge for shipping and it’s a little pricy. But it’s 1 woman who invented it and produces it in BK. Bonus- she’s a toddler mom. This stuff is MAGIC.
Orzo Salad
makes many servings (approximately 8-10)