Fettuccine with Spinach and Feta Cheese

Yesterday I had a fun time at my friend Melissa's house, visiting her and her three kids.  She invited me over for a baking/cooking day.  Whenever we get together we usually get a hankering for cooking or baking something.  We usually look through all the cookbooks, and find something that looks so good we just HAVE to make it.  It is a fun time for us, a nice girls day.  After looking through the cookbooks we came across a recipe we made once before and fell in love with.  Her and I discussed how we both love, bread, cheese, and pasta, go figure right, who doesn't?!  This meal includes two of the three!  This really is probably one of my favorite pasta dishes, and I already can't wait to make it again.

Pasta and Cheese is a girls best friend right?! :)

Ingredients:(Four servings)

• 8oz fettuccine(we used whole wheat)
• 1 cup reduced sodium chicken broth(we used Swanson 98% fat free chicken broth)
• 10oz package chopped frozen spinach, thawed and squeeze dry
• 1/3 cup sun-dried tomatoes, not oil packed(we used oil packed because we couldn't find any.  Any suggestions on where to find non oil packed in a grocery store??)
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1 cup part skim ricotta cheese
• 1/4tsp finely ground black pepper
• 1/4 cup feta cheese(YUM, we used a Mediterranean herb feta cheese, and it was AMAZING)

That's it! So simple! I really do enjoy a vegetarian meal here and there.  This dish is definitely worth making!  We got this recipe out of this cook book.  It didn't say who wrote it, but said it was published by Time Life Books.

There are many good recipes in this book that I hope to make again with Melissa. :)

First boil salted water in a pot, and cook pasta until tender. Drain, and set aside.

Chop up a clove or two of garlic.

Defrost the spinach.  We tossed the package of spinach in a bowl, and nuked it until it was thawed.  Squeeze out as much water as you can.  An easy way to do that is with a coffee filter. 

Measure out the chicken broth

Add to a pot with the spinach

Toss in the garlic.

We used oil packed sun ripened tomatoes, so we used a fork to let as much oil drain off as we could when we measured it.

Add the tomatoes to the pot.  Bring to a boil over high heat. Let simmer for 5 minutes. 

Turn down heat, and add ricotta cheese, and pepper.

Stir and cook until just warmed through, about 1 minute. 

Add mixture to pasta.  Stir to combine, and divide mixture between 4 plates.

At this point I will let you in on a little secret.  Last time we made this pasta dish, we absolutely loved the sun dried tomatoes, and by the picture up above you can see that there aren't that many of them in the dish, so we added more! :) Then topped it with the feta cheese, and  devoured!

YUM! I hope you make this, because it is wonderful!!

I know my husband would really enjoy this meal, he saw the pictures, and said it looked really good.  I will have to make this for him soon.  I think it would be perfect for a date night at home.  It is such a pretty pasta dish, and so simple.  Enjoy!

Question of the Day:



What is a favorite vegetarian meal of yours?? I would love some other ideas!

Hope you all have a great rest of your day! I am making chili in my crock pot today, recipe coming tomorrow, stay tuned! :)