Eat your vegetables: Spinach Pasta

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of time..." I hope Mr Dickens will forgive me for using his words here, but that's how the end of the year has been feeling so far. Some roller coaster of emotion have been our daily bread in december, thinking about it, for the last few years actually, luckily we always got to a happy ending so far.

"...it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us" Incredible how something written in 1859, still applies today.... In so many ways.

Christmas time remains one of my favorit time of the year. Although I can see the rush outside, to me it's a time of the year where things should be slower, where we can take our time. The snow (that is yet to fall) slows down the traffic, the days off keeps us inside, we take time with our families and we take time in the kitchen to make a special meal.

You might wonder what all this has to do with today's recipe... Well maybe not much, beside the fact that it was the first time in a while, that I took time to do something else than christmas cookies. I believe this, to be a good way to make children eat some vegetables, in case the sight of spinach makes them run away or pinch their noses.

Spinach Pasta with Soy and Morbier Sauce

Serves 2

150gr of Spinach, cooked
1 Clove of Garlic
Olive Oil
1 Egg
250gr of Flour, plus extra for dusting
10cl of Soy Cream
100gr of Morbier Cheese
30gr of Walnut

Clean the spinach and cut the stem out of the leaves. In a big pan, eat up the olive oil while you peel the clove of garlic, when the oil is hot, give the spinach leaves in and turn them around with a fork with a clove of garlic pricked at the end. Stir for 3 to 4 minutes, until most of the water has steamed out of the spinach.

In a food processor, put the spinach, the egg and start blitzing. Then add the flour and mix again until you have a dough that forms. Depending on how much water is left in the spinach, you may need to add some more flour.

Dust your worksurface with flour and tip the dough from the processor on it. Using quite a bit of flour, work your dough by hand until it's homogenous and doesn't stick too much anymore. Roll it out as thin as possible and cut into the wished shape. Fettucini is my option, because it's the easiest way to go. Let them dry while you prepare the sauce.

In a large pan, eat up salted water.

In a sauce pan, eat up the soy cream and the Morbier cheese that you cutted into cubes, stir until both are well combined. Set aside but keep it warm.

When the water is boiling, add the pasta in the water, they will be cooked quite quickly, about 2 to 3 minutes. Drain them and place them on the serve plate, pour some sauce on top, and sprinkle some walnuts that you have chopped up, eat while it's hot.