recipe | spicy pasta with spinach, tomatoes and almonds

dinner in 20 minutes... spicy pasta with spinach, tomatoes, & almonds One of my favorite pasta dishes to whip up is also one of the simplest. It's become almost a weekly staple at my house, and you can add your own variations to the dish to make it fresh and new each time.

(makes 6-8 servings)

Pasta (ziti and rigatoni are my personal favorites for this particular dish)

1 28oz can of diced tomatoes

1 bag of fresh spinach, stemmed and washed

8 cloves of garlic, thinly sliced

1/4c of extra virgin olive oil

parmesan cheese, freshly grated

1 cup of slivered almonds

crushed red pepper flakes to taste

Boil a large pot of water for the pasta. Once boiling, add pasta. While the water is heating, toast the almonds in a dry pan until golden, then set aside. In a large saucepan, heat extra virgin olive oil on medium temp. Saute crushed red pepper flakes in oil for one minute. Add in the garlic and saute for two minutes until lightly golden. Add crushed tomatoes and cook for an additional two minutes. Add spinach and cover with a lid for one minute to help cook down the spinach. (One note, the spinach will look absolutely over flowing when you first add into the saucepan, but it quickly reduces in size within a minute). Turn off the cooktop. Add cooked pasta into the saucepan and toss to coat. Sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste. Add a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil. Toss once more and plate. Garnish with parmesan.

Variations: during the summer, I sub out the spinach for fresh basil (2 cups). I also tend to use whatever nuts I have in my pantry... walnuts and pinenuts work great too. The nuts add a great meaty texture to the dish, but you can certainly add in grilled chicken, shrimp or scallops.