This is, without a doubt, the best-easiest or easiest-best meal you're not regularly making. Like the Grilled Salad Nicoise from a few weeks ago, this recipe originally hails from the 2006 Spring/Summer edition of Fine Cooking Fresh. Like the salad, we've been making this ever since, dressing it up for company and dressing it down for rushed Thursdays, and never, ever being disappointed. Though this will take you all the time it takes to cook pasta, it feels and tastes much better than dumping a jar of pasta sauce on top of white spaghetti. (Side note: there's nothing wrong with dumping a jar of sauce over white pasta. Just try this one time instead, and you may not go back).
It's a definite staple for us, but it's also a fridge cleaning/scrounge option because it's so flexible. I'm including the original recipe, (only slightly tweaked) and suggestions for remixes below.
Bon apetit!
Whole Wheat Spaghetti with Arugula, Tomatoes & Ricotta Salata
Recipe slightly adapted from Fine Cooking Fresh Spring/Summer 2006
Ingredients
- 1 lb. dry whole wheat spaghetti
- 6 cups baby arugula, washed and stemmed (about half the normal 10 oz containers it's often sold in)
- 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
- 2 tsp. dried oregano
- About 3 cups diced fresh beefsteak tomatoes
- 5 oz grated ricotta salata
Directions
Cook spaghetti in plenty of salted boiling water until al dente. Drain (but don't rinse). In a large serving bowl, add olive oil, tomatoes, salt and pepper, oregano and pasta. Toss. Add arugula and toss again, gently. Divide among plates and top with cheese.
Notes & Remixes
1. Pasta. if you can, use whole wheat pasta. It is far superior to white in this recipe. But of course, any type of pasta at all works. We've made this recipe with every shape of pasta and a variety of the whole grain, whole wheat and vegetable-based versions. All turn out well.
2. Arugula. We use a lot of arugula - often up to the whole 10 oz container it comes in, making it more salad-y and less pasta-y. We also use prewashed to cut down on prep time. As far as flavor, pretty much any green will work. Arugula is my favorite, but spinach, baby kale, stemmed and chopped grownup kale and basil all work well.
3. Tomatoes. The original recipe calls for thick, hearty beefsteak tomatoes. We've used every kind of tomato - grape, cherry, heirloom, hothouse - you name it. Of course, the better the tomatoes, the better this dish will be, but we get the tomatoes that are the freshest and cheapest at the time.
4. Ricotta Salata. Ricotta Salata is a tad tricky to find, unless you live near a Whole Foods. It's delicious, and well worth the effort and cost if you've never had it or you're making this for company. It's hard and salty, and perfect in this dish. But so are: Parmesan, Asiago, Manchego, and pretty much any hardish cheese you can think of (a Gouda/Parmesan blend from Trader Joe's is especially tasty). Plus some not hard cheeses: Feta and fresh Mozzarella work, too.
Basically, this dish boils down to pasta + greens + tomatoes + cheese. The only constants are the olive oil, oregano and salt and pepper. Unless you're allergic, don't skip the oregano; it really adds something.
Some frequent remixes we're into include: Whole wheat fusilli + spinach and baby kale + tomatoes + feta; Whole wheat penne + 1 cup basil chiffonade + fresh mozzarella.
Try it, share your own remixes, let us know if you've been making this forever. I know the New York Times published this recipe maybe 7 years ago, and I felt very smug for having gotten a jump on them. It's the little things in life. Thanks for reading!