Return from Puerto Rico

Almost inevitably when I return from a vacation, including the Christmas holidays, I am craving health and nutrients. This usually means dishes without heavy cream, items that are not fried, and lots and lots of vegetables. Returning from beautiful Puerto Rico proved to be no different. However, because we returned on the coldest day of the year (-21F), I decided to trade in my usual post vacation meal of a huge green salad for a warm, fresh, veggie loaded, baked pasta dish.

Vegetable Goat Cheese Stuffed Pasta

1 large log of goat cheese
1 bunch of asparagus
5 large handfuls of fresh spinach
1 handful of fresh basil
2 cloves of garlic
olive oil
¾ box of jumbo pasta shells
3 tablespoons of butter
½ lemon
parmesan
3 fresh roma tomatoes
1 handful of pine nuts
salt and pepper

Pre-heat oven to 375.

Start with a big pot of water, add some salt and bring to a boil. Rinse the asparagus and add to the boiling water for 5-7 minutes. Once finished, remove the asparagus and set aside to let cool. Then add roughly ¾ of a box of jumbo pasta shells to the asparagus water. You can make the whole box as I did, but you won’t likely use them all. Boil for ten minutes.

In a food processor, chop two cloves of garlic. Add about a tablespoon of olive oil, fresh spinach, goat cheese, and basil. Chop the asparagus into large pieces. I discarded the bottom (less green) inch or so. Add the asparagus to the food processor and chop until it is smooth and the goat cheese is worked in.

While the pasta shells are cooling, melt the butter and juice from half of a lemon in a small saucepan. Lightly shred some lemon rind into the saucepan. Add a tablespoon or so of olive oil. Bring to a simmer. In a separate pan toast the pine nuts. Slice tomatoes.

Stuff pasta shells with spinach-asparagus filling. Spray a large baking dish with olive oil. Place the stuffed shells in a single layer in the pan. Top with butter-lemon sauce, tomatoes, pine nuts, and shredded parmesan. Bake for about 20 minutes until the top gets crusty and golden. Enjoy!

Any significance of the “shells” as I returned from honeymooning the Island of Enchantment? Probably not. Really, I am just feeling incredibly revitalized from the vacation, and in general, time off from work and school. I haven’t felt inspired to create recipes of this caliber for awhile.

Tonight, I decided to organize all of my lose recipes, including ones I created myself. To do this, I went back to the blog that Paul and I updated much more frequently than this one (marriage, school, life, sorry we got busy!). I found so many great recipes that I had forgotten about. It was so great to go back and look at this. Oh.. the beauty of the world wide webs. :-)

Anyway, tomorrow’s cooking agenda? I’m going to try my hand at lemon scones. Not my own recipe, I am by no means a baker. I usually leave that up to Paul. However, I’m working this food-making inspiration kick, while it’s on. Because, in a few weeks it’s back to school, and on Monday it’s back to work and internship. Also, any excuse to have the oven on for a bit, is good for me!