Bob and I had dinner at Noodles & Company the night he proposed.
Romantic, no?
We like pasta around here.
Sometime after we moved into our house, I took to Google to find a copycat recipe for Noodles’s Pasta Fresca dish.
I found something that involved the base ingredients listed on the menu and ended up tweaking it several times over to my own specifications, starting with the fact that I will likely never ever have wine in my house so I will never use it in a recipe that calls for it.
I don’t have a source saved for the original, and while I refer to it as Pasta Fresca in conversation with Bob, I called this recipe Balsamic Garlic Pasta because that’s a better identifier for anyone who might stumble across it.
Balsamic Garlic Pasta (Pasta Fresca)
Ingredients…
16 oz pasta, cooked and drained (pick a shape)1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
1/4 cup cider vinegar
1/4 cup lemon juice
1/4 cup water
1/4 cup olive oil
1 tsp dried mustard
black pepper to taste1/4 cup garlic, minced (about 1 small head)
1 tsp red pepper flakes (more or less based on heat preference)
1 medium red onion, sliced into strips
2 cups fresh baby spinach (approximate)
6 Roma tomatoes, cubedolive oil for sauteing
Parmesan or Romano cheese for garnish
Directions…
1.) Whisk together balsamic vinegar, cider vinegar, lemon juice, water, olive oil, dried mustard, and black pepper. Set aside.
2.) In a large skillet heat oil over medium and add garlic and red pepper flakes. Cook until fragrant, about 1 minute. Add red onion and cubed tomatoes, cooking until they just start to break down. Onions should be slightly translucent but still have a crunch.
3.) Add cooked pasta and balsamic sauce, stirring to coat pasta and combine other ingredients. Cook for about 5 minutes.
4.) Add baby spinach, stir to combine. Cook until spinach just begins to wilt. Garnish with parmesan cheese when served.
Source …somewhere in the ether…inspired by Noodles & Co
I know 1/4 cup of garlic sounds like a lot, but just go with it.
I usually serve this with some sort of chicken. Minimally seasoned works best because the sauce has a strong flavor. The leftovers are actually pretty good cold, so it could work as a cold pasta salad in the summer or for a potluck. In that case, I’d recommend adding the spinach after it’s been chilled, because spinach gets rather grey and unappetizing looking once it’s been cooked and stored.
This feeds us for two or three nights and on the nutrition scale, this one isn’t too terrible. It’s not very heavy like some pasta sauces can be. Most recently it was a nice change from the gluttony of holiday eating.
We grabbed dinner at Noodles not too long ago and I decided to get the Pasta Fresca just to compare because it had been so long since I’d tried the original. It’s similar, but the original version has a much milder flavor than mine.
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Originally posted on [the now defunct] Computer Generated Housewife.
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Defying Gravity Chris Colfer |