Spaghetti with Arugula

During the week while I'm working away from home, I tend to have my biggest meal in the evening mostly for the sake of convenience.  But on weekends, when I get to cook at home and am likely to be working in the garden or yard all day, I like a big lunch.

This makes one large serving of pasta or probably is enough for two light servings.

I had mostly arugula from my harvest this morning, but there was a bit of kale that I threw in as well.  Spinach is pretty much interchangeable with the arugula or kale here.

I wish I had fresh garlic - but it will be another month or so for the garlic to be ready for harvest.  I do still have some garlic left from last year.  It is starting to sprout but it is good to use.  I just need to remove the sprout from the middle as it can be bitter and only use the rest of the clove.

Ingredients:
1 serving spaghetti
2-3 Tbsp olive oil
5 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
red pepper flakes
3-4 cups arugula and kale (2.5 ounces) *
3-4 cocktail tomatoes, quartered





* Note: I weighed the greens because I know everyone "packs" a cupful of greens differently.  These are not loosely packed but not crammed in either.  As shown in the picture above, I remove some of the stalk on the longer pieces mainly for aesthetics. They are, of course, totally edible and tender but the long pieces can look funny once the rest of the greens have wilted down.


Method:
 
The sauce will come together while the pasta cooks, so prep all of the ingredients first.  Once the salted water is boiling, add spaghetti. As soon as pasta is in the boiling water, start preparing sauce.



Add olive oil to a heated saute pan.  Add garlic and red pepper flakes (1 tsp or as you prefer).  Season with a pinch of salt.  Heat on medium-low for about 7 minutes until softened.  If the heat is too high, the garlic might burn. 








Turn the heat up to medium and add the greens to the pan.  Toss gently to coat with the garlic and oil.  The greens will begin to wilt.   Remove from heat until pasta is ready.

When pasta is ready, return saute pan to heat then add tomatoes and cooked pasta.  Toss to coat.  Adjust salt as needed.




Serve with grated parmesan or aged cheddar.