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Pasta with Arugula and Heart of Palm

by | Food

I don’t know about you, but I am aching for some fresh greens from the garden.  I will be sowing an assortment of lettuce and arugula and other leafy greens in the raised beds soon, so this recipe is going to be on the menu soon (I hope).

Due to busy work schedules and not a lot of time to prepare dinner, we do a lot of spaghetti.  But, we do make our sauce fresh, each and every time, so it’s not exactly a quick meal.  It’s not terribly long, but usually just long enough for J to go from happy to screaming hungry melt-down.  Imagine my happiness when we went to our friends’ for dinner once and were served this AMAZING pasta with arugula and heart of palm.  It was a first course, but I probably could have taken a big bowl of it and just had that for dinner.  When I asked them for a recipe, I found out it was simpler than I expected, which is right up my recipe-hating alley.  So here it is, another one-pot-wonder.  Well, ok, 2, counting the pot you cook the pasta in.

Pasta with Arugula and Heart of Palm

 

 

Pasta with Arugula and Heart of Palm

Ingredients
  • Pasta – rotini or some other funny toddler-friendly shape
  • Butter. mmm, butter. Unfortunately, no “mmm, bacon” in this recipe. Although, now I’ve got me thinkin…
  • Extra virgin olive oil.
  • heart of palm, from a jar or a can.
  • Handful of arugula. Small or large handful is fine, depending on how much you like arugula.
  • Garlic (optional)
Instructions
  1. Boil the pasta. Remember to add some salt into the boiling water to help it do whatever it is that salt does to make pasta yummy. When al dente, drain and set aside.
  2. Break out the heart of palm, from either the can or the jar. They look like white hot dogs. Slice them up on a slant to give it a bit of flair. Otherwise, if you cut them like they’re white hot dogs, they’ll look like little white nickels. I find that cutting on a slant allows for a thinner slice while still getting a hearty bite.
  3. Wash and tear the arugula into bite-sized pieces.
  4. In a separate pan (hence the not quite one-pot-wonder thing), pour in some evoo (extra virgin olive oil) and melt some butter over medium heat. The quantities are really up to you, and depends on how much pasta you’ll be making. I’ve made this a couple of times, and I’ve never measured. I also prefer the taste of the olive oil more than the butter in this particular dish. So, if you need quantities for making a 16oz box of rotini pasta, I’d guesstimate at a couple of tablespoons of evoo and maybe a 2-3 tablespoons of butter.
  5. (optional) Once the olive oil and butter are integrated (but not burnt), you can throw in some minced/diced garlic to add even more flavor. Some salt and pepper at this stage can’t hurt either.
  6. If you’re not using the garlic, then add the heart of palm and drained pasta to the oil/butter in the pan. Toss over low heat. Feel free to season if you haven’t already.
  7. Right before serving, add the arugula and let it wilt in the heat of the dish.
  8. Serve. Eat. Yum.

Since you can prep while the pasta water is boiling and start melting butter when the pasta is cooking, this doesn’t take much longer than 15 minutes to make!

 

3 Comments

  1. Rebecca D. Dillon

    I LOVE arugula. Thanks for the quick and easy recipe!

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