spring spaghetti!!!

I know this blog has about, ohhhh, 3 readers, but for you, dear readers, I have really been at a loss lately, since I have had a bunch of dud recipes and repeats lately. Nothing new going on up in my kitchen.

This week was supposed to be a week of easy dinners (can we say grilled cheese, anyone?), because the fiancé and I are hosting the one party a year I allow him to have this Saturday, and I didn’t feel like stuffing my fridge for the week when it will be stuffed this Friday with party goodies. Don’t worry, the blog will be lit up with party goodies come early next week – pulled pork fo sho, plus whatever pinterest goodies strike my fancy.

So I found this pasta recipe on pinterest that looked simple enough, and called for fresh mint and ramps. All the stupid food blogs out there go apeshit come spring when ramps are available. You’d think they were giving out free truffles at the markets. I was curious, naturally. Except… fucking HEB didn’t have them. Apparently, they are usually just at farmer’s markets. Go figure. A quick google search in the produce aisle sent me home with a giant leek, the afore-mentioned mint, and some pancetta, because who doesn’t love bacon in all its glorious varieties?

Well, I’m pretty sure this recipe is 17x better than the original, mostly because of the pancetta, but whatever, its delish, so try it. Kthanks.

Spring Pasta with Leeks, Mushrooms, Pancetta and Fresh Mint:

- ½ a pound of pasta (spaghetti or linguine is best)
- 1 leek
- A pack of pancetta (umm no idea on the measurement)
- Baby bella mushrooms, to taste, diced
- ¼ cup white wine
- ¼ cup shredded parmesan
- Salt and pepper, to taste
- Fresh mint, finely diced (like, a tbsp?)




If you’re like me, you look at a leek and go, “what the fuck do I do with this monster?” I’m gonna tell you. Chop off the dark green leaves. You want only super light green/white stalk left. Then chop up the stalk thinly, and toss into a bowl of cold water. There is a whole bunch of grit and funk between the layers of this thing, so you want to get it out of there. Swirl the bits around in the water, then drain and set aside.




Ok, let’s next salt some water, get it boiling, and toss the pasta in. You want to cook it to jusssstttt al dente. Once it’s there, take it off the stove, drain, and toss with a bit of olive oil to keep it from sticking to itself. Set aside.

Put a large frying pan on the stove, and turn the heat up to medium-high. Once hot, put the pancetta in there (if you’re like me, you buy it in a pack all diced for you – if you’re not like me, well shit, dice that crap up first. Use your head here). Let the pieces get a bit brown and crispy, and the fat render out, about 2-4 mins. Toss the mushrooms in with the pancetta, salt them (to draw the moisture out), and cook for another 1-2 mins.

Put the cooked pasta in the frying pan with the pancetta and mushrooms and let it get a bit toasty, stirring a bit to get all the pieces cooked through. I’d say leave it in, ohhh, 2-3 mins. Yeah.

NEXT toss in the sliced up leeks, as much or as little as you want, and toss constantly, until leeks are wilted. Again, 2-3 mins.

Pour in the white wine. It will bubble up and mostly evaporate. (Confession time – I didn’t have any white wine on hand. I did, however, have an open bottle of Andre that I’m sure was half flat. So I used that. It still tasted good.)

Sprinkle the shredded parm all over the toss the pasta. As soon as the cheese is all melty, turn off the heat, and sprinkle as much mint as you want throughout the pasta. Toss until mint is just wilting. Seriously, maybe taste the pasta and add more mint if you’d like. I wish I’d used more mint.

Serve this up and enjoy! It is seriously yummy and easy easy easy!