Monday, June 22, 2009

Monday came too fast!

I feel like I haven't been able to catch up on blogs, cleaning, errands, anything! Eek!

Tonight's dinner was really fast and easy since I didn't get home until 8 (and that was without any residual delays from tonight's Metro accident - scary stuff). On the menu tonight -
Linguine with Garlic, Oil & Anchovies:
We have this How to Cook Everything day by day calendar that is essentially a recipe box. Jamie's been waving the Linguine with Garlic and Oil card around for the past few weeks and he managed to sneak it onto this week's menu. The back of the card has a few variations on the dish so that's where the anchovies came in and I hate not having a green in my dish so that's where the spinach comes in!

Linguine with Garlic, Oil and Anchovies
(adapted from Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything)
1/2 lb linguine, cooked
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/3 c extra virgin olive oil
6 anchovy fillets
2 tbsp pine nuts, toasted
2 handfuls baby spinach
black pepper

In a skillet over medium low heat, combine garlic, oil and anchovies. Mash up the anchovies until they break up into small pieces. Cook for 3 minutes, stirring frequently. Add spinach and cook until it starts to wilt and then add linguine, pine nuts and a few turns of freshly ground black pepper. Mix well and serve.

This dish was pretty good for a quick weekday dinner. It reminded me of Linguine w/White Clam Sauce, without the extra work! Just a few things I'd change - 1) the dish was a little too oily for my taste (I usually prefer tomato based sauces on my pasta) so I'd reduce the amount of oil to somewhere between 1/4 and 1/3 cup and 2) I think spinach wasn't the right choice for this dish...it could use a bitter green like broccoli rabe or arugula (and no, I'm not just saying that because I love those greens ;p).

Now I'm craving something sweet :\ I rarely crave sweets but for some reason whenever I have something really salty or super garlicky, all I want is something sweet afterward. Do you ever get those weird cravings??

Today marks the official start of my Marine Corps Marathon training (even though Monday is an off day ;) ). WOOHOO! I'm excited to FINALLY train properly for a marathon - NO SLACKING this year! I feel good about my running base and I'm determined to bring my marathon time to UNDER 5 hours. I know I can do it...I just need to stick to my plan (which will involve some training on the not so fun parts of the course)!

I'm in need of some good cross training and strength training ideas (aside from swimming or biking), so please send some my way! Running is the easy part - motivating myself to do the rest is another story!

4 comments:

lauren said...

this looks delicious, but I will admit - I am scared of anchovies. Does it taste fishy at all or just add a nice salty flavor?

Karena said...

Hi Lauren! I used to be freaked out by anchovies too, but they are my new favorite ingredient! I went a little heavy on them for this dish, but if you want less of a fishy taste (though, this really ended up tasting like a clam sauce - so briny I guess?) you could test it out with just 1 or 2 fillets for a little bit of flavor...think caesar dressing!

Janice said...

That looks really simple and delicious. I will have to try that this week.

Melinda said...

That pasta dish looks delish!