Serves: 4 servings (serving size: about 1 1/4 cups)
Ingredients
- 1 lb cherry tomatoes, halved and seeds squeezed out (I used TJ’s heirloom tomato mix)
- 1 cup sliced mushrooms
- Cooking spray
- 4 teaspoons olive oil, divided
- 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, divided
- 2 cups tightly packed fresh baby spinach (about 1 1/4 ounces)
- 1 1/2 cups cubed reduced-fat silken tofu (about 6 ounces, I only had firm on hand and it worked well)
- 1 cup packed fresh basil leaves
- 1/3 cup grated fresh Parmesan-Romano cheese blend
- 1 tablespoon rice wine vinegar
- 3/4 teaspoon salt
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- juice and zest from one medium lemon
- 4 cups hot cooked whole wheat spaghetti (about 8 ounces uncooked) We made fresh! **Be sure to save 1/2 cup pasta water to thin sauce if needed.
- 3 tablespoons pine nuts, toasted
Preparation
Preheat oven to 450°.
Place tomatoes, cut sides up, and mushrooms on a jelly-roll pan coated with cooking spray. Drizzle with 2 teaspoons oil; sprinkle evenly with 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground pepper. Bake at 450° for 7 minutes or until tender, just until charred.
Combine remaining 2 teaspoons oil, remaining 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, spinach, tofu, and next 6 ingredients (through lemon) in a food processor; process until smooth.
Combine spinach mixture and cooked pasta in a large skillet; cook over low until thoroughly heated, stirring occasionally and adding pasta water if needed. Gently stir in tomatoes, mushrooms and toasted pine nuts; sprinkle with a bit of parmesan. Enjoy! We had the Bridlewood Chard along with it.
Here is the tower of pasta! We like to place our pasta on this drying rack until we get ready to boil it all. It helps it to rest and dries it out just a bit so they don’t all end up sticking to each other.
It’s also great if you want to dry the pasta out all the way and save for later.
It’s a great dish for at least 6 people as a side. And hey, it’s even not bad the next day! It won’t be as bright green, but it’s pretty darn tasty in my opinion 🙂
Home Goods is the best for fun, cheap serving bowls and all kinds of other stuff for the home.
The next time around, in addition to the version above . . .
- I used two lemons because the ones I had were pretty small
- added 1/2 an avocado to the sauce to make it extra luscious.
- cubed some fontina cheese to add in at the end to get slightly melt-y
- instead of home made linguini, I used boxed farfalle pasta, and you can use any kind you like really
- I had about 1/2 cup of pesto leftover to use in other things like sandwiches, yum!
