Cheese-gilded Linguine with Smoky Tomatoes & Spinach Sautéed with Garlic

This is the first recipe I’ve made from The Splendid Table’s How to Eat Supper: Recipes, Stories, and Opinions from Public Radio’s Award Winning Food Show (thank you Lorraine). I served it with baby spinach and slivered garlic sautéed in olive oil.

I used several of the authors’ tricks while making this recipe. First, I heavily salted the pasta water... the authors explain that pasta doesn’t absorb salt once it’s cooked. Your pasta water should actually taste like the sea (and then you need less salt in your sauce).

I also sprang for organic Muir Glen whole tomatoes, which they recommend earlier in the book, and which gave the sauce a more dynamic flavor. And, of course, we used real Parmigiano-Reggiano—crucial to the dish’s success.

The pasta bordered on phenomenal and is definitely company-worthy—very flavorful without being heavy and a refreshing change of pace from “regular-old” marinara (of which I’m not a huge fan, unless it accompanies Lorraine’s manicotti).

Overall assessment: easy, unique and doesn’t require a lot of (expensive) ingredients. Definitely make again, next time with Ben’s homemade pasta! Sophia wanted me to be sure and note that she really liked it (and she ate all of it!).