We have been trying to do meatless mondays for quite a while now. We have come to perfect this pasta dish over the past few months. It is quite adaptable and is a good way to clean out the refrigerator on a Monday night. It is definately worth it to make your own beans instead of using canned. They are firmer and stand out better with the pasta.
Monday Night Pasta (Pasta with Garlic and White Beans)
Serves 4-6
- 6-8 cloves of garlic or more, sliced very thin
- olive oil
- butter
- bag of cannelini beans, or any white beans (canned beans work just fine too)
- bunch of swiss chard, or broccoli, or broccoli rabe or whatever is left in the refrigerator
- vegetable broth or chicken broth
- salt, pepper, red pepper flakes if feeling spicy
- 1 lb of penne, rigatoni or whatever pasta you want
- parmesan cheese
Soak beans in a pot of water overnight. The next day drain them and rinse them. Boil in a pot with salt until tender.
In large saute pan, heat a few tablespoons of olive oil and a tablespoon or so of butter. Saute the garlic on very low heat making sure you don’t burn it. Take your time and get them nice and soft. Don’t be stingy on the olive oil. When the garlic is nice and soft, about 15 minutes, add the greens to the pan and saute them for a few minutes. Add a few splashes of broth and put a top on the pan to help the greens cook. After the greens wilt put the beans in and keep the pan on low.
Meanwhile, cook the pasta al dente or even a touch under al dente as it will cook a little bit more with the sauce. When pasta is done, drain the pasta but keep a cup of the pasta water. Once the pasta is drained, put it in with the beans and greens. Mix everything up and add enough pasta water to get it to a nice creamy consistency. Adding pasta water is a great trick that brings everything together. Add salt and pepper if you want and last but not least lots of parmesan. Serve and enjoy.
Grace texted me Friday afternoon at work and said she was looking at my blog and thought I needed a new update and would be happy to go out to eat with us so I can post something. Sneaky. It doesn’t take much to talk us into going out so we decided to head out to Bar Cento on West 25th when we got home from work. Grace wanted to go there for her birthday back in March but we never made it. We went early as it was Friday night and got a table right away. It actually wasn’t crowded at all. The Market Garden Brewery across the street was packed though. We ended up ordering a bunch of different things and sharing. We had some warm olives, mussels, frites, a large plate of different meats, cheeses and pickles and two pizzas. Quite the smorgasbord. We had a pizza blanco, just oil, and cheese, and an olive pizza that we have had before here and is really good. The mussels were good and buttery and the fries were great as always with three different types of mayonnaise to dip in. The meat platter had a nice selection with a little bit of everything. I tried goose liver for the first time so am proud of myself. I liked it too. We ate pretty much everything. Just brought home some of the pizza and some of the meat that was left over.
I picked the wrong book to get me out of my reading block. Although it is always interesting to read about the crazy Nazi’s and the unbelievable reality of not that long ago, I just can’t get too into it. I had trouble reading Larson’s other books, and don’t think I ever finished them, but I am happy that I did plow through this one. I didn’t like the pacing of this book. It seemed like some of the book went into minute details of days and weeks for chapters and chapters and then it quickly went over years at a time in several paragraphs. There really is not much plot to it besides the history behind it all. Yawn.
We finally made it Lola after trying several times over the years to make a reservation without thinking weeks ahead. I made this reservation about three weeks ahead of time. I surprised Courtney on Friday and instead of going home after work we took a left turn instead of a right turn and went to downtown Cleveland and spent the night at the Ritz and went out to dinner at Lola. We had a great night…more details on my personal blog…eventually. Lola is of course Michael Simon’s flagship restauraunt that is now located on East 4th Street. We were at the orginial Lola probably about ten years ago when it was over on the west side. After a glass of wine in our beautiful room at the Ritz and a complimentary cocktail in the lounge, we headed to East 4th. Lola is very dark, with a beautiful bar, looking out on the street, with an alibaster top lighted from underneath with a huge wall of wine behind the bar. Very cool. We had a nice table right in the middle overlooking the open kitchen. We ordered ourselves a bottle of white burgandy and relaxed. I had beef cheek pierogies for an appetizer and Courtney had the artichoke soup. The pierogies were filled with tender pot roast like beef with a gravy like sauce and some horseradish sauce drizzled over it. Very rich and delicious. The artichoke soup was earthy, tasty with hazelnuts sprinkled in it as well as chuncks of bacon. I had the smoked pork shop that came sliced on top of creamy polenta sauced with a barbeque sauce. Courtney had hangar steak which came with a tasty, coarsley chopped gremolata sauce that was very good. The hangar steak also came with an order of fries…which won the prize for the night as they were perfectly done. Overall I would say that the meal was great…but not over the top. I think we are becoming food snobs. We probably ordered too many heavy things though. The menu is almost all meat. But I would definately recommend going there and would like to go back and eat at the bar.
Eat On Edgecliff 