Chef Monsta: I cook, therefore I blog

Happy New Year! For my first official post of 2010, I wanted to recreate a delicious dish I ate while on vacation in Miami, Florida this past week. Every time I hit up the MIA, I always spend an evening window shopping at the luxurious Shops at Bal Harbour. I ogle at the window displays of Dior, YSL, and their other fancy counterparts while I wait for a table at Carpaccio, an Italian eatery in the mall. Carpaccio is always packed, has a great outdoor seating area, and a hearty wine list. I have probably eaten almost every pasta on the menu, but my favorite is the Pennette Harry’s Bar, a dish based on Harry Cipriani’s famed restaurant in Venice, Italy. Harry’s Bar takes the credit for the invention of the Bellini and carpaccio! If you can’t make it to Venice or Miami, then please try this recipe for Harry’s Bar Penne. It combines some amazing ingredients, and is filling yet surprisingly light.

Ingredients:

Penne or Pennette pasta
5 cloves garlic
16 oz of crushed tomatoes
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp sugar
2 handfuls of fresh spinach
1/2 cup of sun dried tomatoes
1/4 cup of pine nuts
Parmesan

In a sauce pan, saute garlic in olive oil. Add crushed tomatoes and sugar. Cook on low heat for 15 minutes (instant Pomodoro sauce).

Dice up sun-dried tomatoes.

Make sure to wash your spinach thoroughly! Chop spinach, add sun-dried tomatoes, and saute in 1 tbsp olive oil for about 2 minutes. The spinach will wilt/shrink instantly.

In another hot pan, toast pine nuts for 2 minutes until they slightly brown (do NOT use oil, the pine nuts have their own natural oils).

Combine Pomodoro sauce, spinach and sun-dried tomatoes, and pine nuts with your cooked penne.

Toss all ingredients together, top with Parm, and enjoy!