KITCHEN ADVENTURETTE: SPINACH THING. Because I had a bunch of stuff.

ingredients: spaghetti, garlic, dried herbs (basil, oregano, red pepper flakes, plus black pepper), button a.k.a. plain old mushrooms, olive oil, spinach! from a package, plum tomato, balsamic vinegar, lemon, butter, parmesan cheese.

to make: Put a pot of (salted, except I’m out of salt) water on to boil. While it’s heating, chop the garlic (I think coarse chopping would actually work better than fine). Put the chopped garlic in a pan with olive oil and the herbs. Set it cooking. Slice/chop the mushrooms and add them to the pan. When it’s nice and crackling and snapping along, turn the heat down to simmer and stir the garlic and mushrooms now and again. When the water is boiling, add the pasta. Cook cook cook. About halfway through the pasta’s cooking time, add the spinach to the pan and turn the heat back up. Cook the spinach, adding more as it cooks down, until you’ve got as much as you want. Chop the tomato. Add the vinegar to the pan. Cut the lemon in half and squeeze the juice into the pan. Stir stir cook cook. At the very last minute, add the tomato to the pan. Stir stir. Drain and butter the pasta and top with vegs and cheese. Yum!

it tastes: bright and tangy! also buttery and rich!