The Beauty of Tomatoes, Basil and Spinach Fettuccine Marry

Oh my Oh me Tomatoes!

There is nothing sweeter, is there?

The only place in Helena, Montana to get tomatoes right now, that I know of, is The Farm in the Dell, one of the sweetest places on the planet that provide purpose to developmentally disabled adults in our community. Every resident has a job on a real working farm operation that mainly raises tomatoes in their big greenhouses and sells them at stores and the farmer's market.

I love tomatoes, and this year we sadly did not plant any of our own. I will rely on my CSA and the Farmer's Market to feed my addiction. Tonight, dinner was inspired by an impulse purchase at the grocery store and starred beautiful Dell tomatoes. 

I also adore hand made spinach fettuccine pasta. There use to be a national brand that made it and sold it, but I haven't been able to locate it in years. Today, I found a new product at the Real Food Store, a Montana product, that made me giggle. 

Apparently, there is this glorious business called The Great Northern Pasta Company operating near Whitefish, MT. They sell a variety of ORGANIC and GLUTEN FREE pastas, right out of Whitefish! I tried their spinach fettuccine tonight, and it was SPECTACULAR! If you get a chance to try their pasta, they sell it at the Real Food Market in Helena and have a website. 

This recipe is originally inspired by Betty Crocker. I have her cookbook. It was one of my first, alongside the thin and threadbare Amish cooking manual that was my great-grandmother's, her handwriting still in it. We've added and subtracted through the years and dinner tonight was delightful, springy, and simple.

Spinach Fettuccine

Ingredients:

2 packages of Great Northern Spinach fettucine (fresh is best, but you can buy dried pasta and cook it for longer)

1 teaspoon salt

6 fat ripe tomatoes, diced

Half a jar of sun dried tomatoes stored in olive oil (about 1/2 cup, minimum, snipped into small pieces

4 green onions, chopped

2 beets, peeled and diced into small pieces

2 tablespoons olive oil 

6 fresh basil leaves, chopped

1 container of feta cheese, any variety

Start to boil your pot of water with your teaspoon of salt. If you use fresh pasta, it only needs to cook for three minutes, so it can be left to the last thing. If using dried pasta, you will need longer to cook them so start boiling them right away.

In a skillet, heat your olive oil and toss in your green onions and beets together, sauteing at medium high heat for the time it takes to dice your tomatoes and snip your sun-drieds.

Add your two types of tomatoes to the skillet and lower the heat to medium heat, string to prevent sticking or burning until the tomatoes are cooked through, about 10 minutes for us. 

This is when you add your fresh pasta into the hot water to boil and your chopped basil into the tomato mixture. Stir your pasta, stir your tomatoes. When the pasta is done, remove it from heat and drain it. Turn off your tomato mix and add it to your pasta. When your serve it, sprinkle a generous amount of feta on top of the pasta. 

You can always add more vegetables too, in my opinion. Tonight it was a disguise act with beets (and it worked) but we've also used fresh peas, baby spinach, and peppers. There is always room for more vegetation at the table!