My kitchen is lonely

So, I think it's time to get back to cooking. There's only so much cooking I can let other people do for me before I start itching to do it myself. I had in mind that I wanted to make Tuscan Spaghetti with Red Wine, a dish I've made many times before. However, I'm all healthy and local now, so a few adjustments had to be made. Also, I didn't want to go out and buy anything special for this meal, so I just subsituted whatever I had in the house.

Tuscan Spaghetti with Red Wine - Lazy Lena Style
1 pkg whole wheat spaghetti
beet greens
garlic
olive oil
red pepper flakes
1 bottle red wine
parmesan cheese

1. Pour the entire bottle of wine into a pot and add enough water to make your spaghetti (I added about another bottle's worth of water). Bring it to a boil.


At this point, my dad is commenting, "I can hear you can make pasta with water as well." Smart ass.

2. Chop your garlic and beet greens. Here are my beet greens.


They're pretty, yes? Usually, this recipe calls for spinach. But I didn't have that. I had beet greens.

3. Heat a little olive oil over medium heat and add the garlic. Soften the garlic for about a minute and add red pepper flakes. Feel free to add as much as you want. I only added a little because Zack complains a lot if I had too much. Add your greens and wilt them.


4. Your spaghetti should be cooking! Hopefully, it's al dente now. Reserve about 1/2 a cup of the cooking liquid and drain the pasta.


5. Add the reserved liquid and the spaghetti to the pan and toss it all together so that it heats through and the flavors meld. Sprinkle some cheese on top and eat!


It's a nice easy twist on spaghetti. Buy some cheap wine and go to town. The wine I bought was $5 from Trader Joe's and the flavor at the end was great.