Cheesy Leek Spinach Pasta Food

CHEESY LEEK AND SPINACH PASTA

Steps:

• Melt the butter with the oil in a large pan, put in the leeks and splash in a little hot water.
• Cover and cook over a low heat, stirring occasionally, for about 10 minutes until no longer squeaky.
• While the leeks are cooking, boil the penne in salted water according to the packet instructions.
• Meanwhile, add the creme fraiche and mustard into the leeks, add three-quarters of the cheese and season well.
• Stir until the cheese melts.
• Season the leeks mixture with salt and pepper, to taste.
• Take off the heat.
• Drain the pasta, reserving the cooking water.
• Pour the pasta into the sauce and stir, adding enough cooking water to make the sauce coat the pasta.
• Add crushed red pepper flakes, if using.
• Stir in the spinach, a big handful at a time, until it wilts, splashing in a little more water if needed.
• Toss in the remaining cheese and serve.

CHEESY LEEK & PASTA BAKE

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 200°C.
• Cook pasta according to package directions. Steam leeks until just tender over the boiling pasta.
• Put shells in a buttered casserole dish. Top with the leeks and season lightly with salt & pepper. Sprinkle the chopped parsley and thyme over the top.
• Put milk in a saucepan and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Add cheeses and stir to melt. If sauce seems a bit thin, you can thicken it by adding the 2tsp cornstarch to 2 Tbsp water and adding this mixture to the milk & cheese mixture and cook until thickened.
• Pour the sauce over the leeks and top with the breadcrumbs. Bake for 30 minutes or until bubbly and golden.

FRESH LEEK AND SPINACH PASTA

Steps:

• Slice up the light green sections of the leeks. Use as much as possible, it will cook down quite a bit! Put into a colander and rinse the sand/dirt off.
• Slice the red pepper into long thin slices.
• I get these nice little stuffed peppers from the deli/olive bar. Squeeze the cream cheese out and set aside. Cut the hot pepper into small bits (~ 1/2 cm x 1/2 cm).
• Get enough water into one pot for the pasta and start bringing to a boil. (Add salt to water and pasta once it's boiling).
• In the meantime, heat a nonstick fry pan (that will be large enough for the full 2 servings of pasta) over med-high heat.
• Add olive oil to the pan and heat.
• Add the leeks and red pepper. Saute for about 3 minutes.
• Add the hot pepper. Saute another 5 minutes. The leeks should just start to brown (but don't burn them!).
• While sauteeing, add the spinach to the colander and rinse.
• Toss the sun-dried tomatoes and the olives in with the leeks. (If adding meatless sausage or tuna, this would be a good time to add it, too).
• Reduce the heat to med-low and saute for another couple of minutes.
• Add the reserved cream cheese and mix all together. Add the tomatoes.
• Once the pasta is cooked, pour gently over the spinach and drain.
• Crumble the feta cheese into the vegetables.
• Add half pasta to pan. Add pesto and stir.
• Add rest of pasta/spinach to pan. (If I'm not using pesto, I usually drizzle another tbsp of olive oil in at this point).
• Adjust to low heat. Cover and heat for 2 minutes.
• Stir everything together and serve.