Yummy Pasta

So the other night I was making dinner, tired of the same old side dishes, and started poking around the pantry to see what I could come up with. I found some whole wheat penne pasta (Penne Rigate to be precise) which I decided to cook.

While the water was coming to a boil for the pasta I thought about what to DO with the cooked pasta. Not really knowing what to do, other than knowing that I wasn't in the mood to top it with a red sauce, I started out with some olive oil in the skillet. I added a diced onion, and while that cooked, I decided to use some of the abundant kale I found in my refrigerator. So I chopped that finely, and then added it to the onion. Let that all simmer for awhile, added some salt and pepper, and then tasted. Not quite right. Not terrible, but not quite there.

So I added some Chardonnay, and let that get happy together. When I tasted again it was good, but still lacking. Just didn't have the depth of flavor I was looking for. Master arrived home and after tasting the mixture suggested adding rosemary and thyme. Those flavors made a great addition, but still I felt something else was called for. I ended up following my intuition and adding a can of cream of mushroom soup. Of course it was a little thick, so Master added the rest of the Chardonnay. :)

So it all simmered together for awhile, and once the pasta was cooked I added the penne to the sauce, the yummy side dish was done, and the perfect compliment to the steaks which Master grilled.

Master thought the dish was really tasty, and told me to make a note of the ingredients/recipe so we could make it again. So that's what I just did right here! :) I do think the dish would be just as good with other types of pasta too.

** So I glance into the cabinet today and discover that the pasta I used for the dish, originally reported here as rigatoni, was in fact Penne Rigate. So I edited above (in red) just for the sake of perfectionism. :) I also changed the photo used to one of penne rather than the original pix of rigatoni. I still stand by my last sentence above - I think the sauce would work well on most any type of pasta. (Apparently it works well with both penne and rigatoni, lol!)

.