You want raisins with your spaghetti?
Turns out that you definitely do.
This Spaghetti With Spinach, Pine Nuts and Raisins is a knock-it-out-of-the-park variation on traditional spaghetti recipes. There is the silky smoothness of the noodles, the crunch of the pine nuts, the healthfulness of fresh spinach barely cooked, and the pungent edgy sweet/sour vibe of raisins soaked in a red-wine vinegar solution.
This recipe is adapted from one that appears in Joshua McFadden’s Six Seasons: A New Way with Vegetables. This three hundred plus page cookbook is a compendium of excellent recipes. Alice Waters (of Chez Panisse) said of this book: “Joshua McFadden has the soul of a farmer, and his recipes are beautifully in tune with the seasons and the land.” Who doesn’t want to be “beautifully in tune with the seasons and the land?” I know I do and this cookbook has a special place in my burgeoning cookbook collection. You can buy the cookbook at your local bookstore or on Amazon here.
Here is the recipe as I cooked it in my kitchen.
Spaghetti With Spinach, Pine Nuts and Raisins
Ingredients
- 1/2 C. raisins
- Red wine vinegar
- Kosher salt and freshly-ground black pepper
- 8 ounces spaghetti
- Extra-virgin olive oil
- 2 cloves of garlic (thinly-sliced)
- 1/2 C. pine nuts
- 1/2 t. dried chile flakes
- 1 bunch fresh baby spinach
- 3 T. unsalted butter
- Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese (grated)
Directions
- Step 1 Plump raisins in a little red wine vinegar and warm water. You want this liquid just to cover the raisins. Let the raisins plump up in this vinegary solution for about 20 minutes.
- Step 2 Boil spaghetti in salted water until it is al dente. Drain cooked spaghetti reserving 1/2 cup of cooking water.
- Step 3 Put a couple tablespoons of olive oil in a skillet. Heat over medium heat. Sauté sliced garlic and pine nuts for a few minutes until they are just beginning to brown. Add chile flakes and continue sautéing for a few seconds more.
- Step 4 Drain the raisins and add to the garlic/pine nut sauté.
- Step 5 Increase heat to medium and sauté baby spinach in some of the reserved pasta water (with a cover over the pan) until the spinach is wilted.
- Step 6 Add the drained pasta, the unsalted butter and toss to combine.
- Step 7 Taste and adjust seasonings.
- Step 8 Grate cheese and sprinkle over the dish. Drizzle a bit of extra-virgin olive oil over the spaghetti and serve.
