Fettuccine and saffron butter with spinach and roasted peppers recipe
This recipe is adapted from “The Greens Cookbook” by Debra Madison. This cookbook is packed with recipes! I have many of her cookbooks and use all of them.
Ingredients:
The saffron butter:
6 tablespoons unsalted butter
One large shallot, finally diced
1 tablespoon marjoram or basil leaves, roughly chopped
1 tablespoon parsley leaves, roughly chopped
1/8 teaspoon saffron threads soaked in 1 teaspoon hot water
Pinch of cayenne pepper
Grated peel of one lemon
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
Directions:
1. Cream the butter with the rest of the ingredients. Cover and set aside.
The pasta and vegetables
Ingredients:
Fettuccine egg pasta
2 bell peppers, one red and one yellow,
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 bunch of spinach
1/4 cup pine nuts
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 red onion, quartered and thinly sliced
1 cup vegetable stock
3 cloves garlic, finally chopped
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
Tellicherry peppercorns
Parmigiano-Reggiano
Directions:
1. Bring a large pot of water to a boil.
2. Slice the peppers in half, remove the seeds and cores and brush both sides with olive oil.
3. Bake the peppers cut side down in a hot 350f oven until the skins are wrinkled and loose.
4. When they are cool enough to handle, scrape off the skins and cut them into narrow strips.
5. Stem the spinach, and wash well.
6. Discard any bruised or yellow leaves and then cut them into wide strips.
7. Toasted the pine nut nuts in a dry skillet until they are golden. Remove from the pan.
8. When you are ready to cook the pasta, heat the olive oil in a skillet and add the onions.
9. Fried over medium-high heat for about 1 minute
10. Add the stock and the garlic, peppers and salt.
11. Cook together for another minute; then add the spinach
12. Stir with a pair of tongs until the spinach wilts; lower the heat and add all but a tablespoon of the saffron butter
13. Add a little more stock if the 1st cup has evaporated, so that the melted butter and the pan juices create a sauce
14. Add salt to the boiling pasta water, lower the temperature to a gentle boil and cook the pasta al dente
15. Remove the pasta from the water and add it to the vegetables along with the rest of the saffron butter.
16. Mix well with a pair of tongs letting the butter melt into the noodles.
17. Season the dish with freshly ground pepper and add the pine nuts. Toss well.
Serve the pasta with grated Parmigiano-Reggiano.
