Baked Pasta with Gorgonzola and Spinach

For baked pasta, you can use any pasta noodle you like as long as you can keep the noodles moist while baking. A common problem is that the noodles will get hard when being baked at high temperatures. I like to boil my noodles and sauce first, add sauce and then flash broil the pasta in the oven under very high temperature to finish them off, or until cheese on top is au gratin (click for defintion).

A common misconception is that baked pasta is healthier since its baked. Right? Wrong! Baked pasta can actually be more unhealthy than any other pasta dish because it needs to be high in fat content, and be coated with ample sauce that is usually cream based. If the baked noodles weren't covered with enough sauce then the noodles could dry out during the baking process. or just won't be as good. Of course there are tomato based sauces in baked pastas, but in my opinion, they are just not as good.

So how do we come up with this healthy, fairy tale pasta sauce that is so creamy yet so healthy?
I know you waited all your life for this so i will make this quick; pine nuts. Yes I know Italians have been doing this for centuries but i devised a method that is beyond this world. I have had reports that a person just ate this pasta recipe for a month straight and lost an incredible amount of weight. A pasta fast is unheard of, that is the very reason why she lost so much weight. She was not dieting but indulging, little did she know that the pasta recipe was the healthiest thing you could indulge in, on this planet. A true paradigm shift in the word indulging! Maybe because of me, Webster will change the word indulging to dieting (don't mean to toot my own horn but this pasta is truly amazing. Don't listen to me, make the recipe so you can toot my horn and don't forget to comment.)


Here is the recipe made simple and healthy!

Items that you need:

• pine nuts (1 cup)
  
• chicken stock (1/2 cup)
  
• yellow onion (1/2 of a medium sized onion)
  
• balsamic vinegar (about a tablespoon)
  
• cherry and plum tomatoes (1/2 pound plum and a pint of cherry)
  
• fresh basil (about1/2 cup chopped)
  
• Gorgonzola cheese (to taste)
• Garlic (two cloves)
• Spinach

Method of cooking:

1. Julienne onions (half the onion and chop to make long match stick looking pieces, if this is difficult don't worry just rough chop any way you like but just make sure all pieces are even to ensure even cooking). Toss onions in balsamic vinegar and pepper mixture. Set aside.
2. Boil noodles, when done toss in extra virgin olive oil and set aside.
   
3. Put pine nuts in blender with about a half a handful of cherry tomatoes. Blend and add chicken stock slowly until you reach desired consistency (desired consistency should be thick as pancake batter)
4. Chop tomatoes and lightly salt and pepper them (both plum and the rest of the cherry tomatoes). get a saute pan extremely hot and add tomatoes then onions. Add your garlic and turn burner down to medium heat, let simmer for 30 minutes.
   
5. Add basil and your pine nut/cherry tomato mixture and cook for 5 more minutes.
6. Mix sauce spinach with noodles and toss with Gorgonzola cheese and spinach to taste. Make sure noodles are coated liberally The amount of Gorgonzola cheese is entirely up to you. If you choose Gorgonzola cheese over your husband they use as much as you want. If you like the taste of Gorgonzola cheese, then add a few tablespoons worth. Gorgonzola can go a long way.
   
7. Place in casserole dish and Sprinkle a little Gorgonzola on top. Cook at 375 Degrees for 10 minutes or until au gratin (click for definition).
   

You can make variations of this recipe easily. Sometimes you need to add extra chicken stock, pine nuts or tomatoes. This is based on your taste. Basically, this recipe is not set in stone, so have fun!

NOTE: This is a lactose free pasta sauce besides the cheese. You can substitute lactose free cheese if you would like. I don't have anything against cows, but I am a little bit careful when it comes to heavy cream as a base. Heavy cream is butter in its natural state, so you can imagine how fattening this can be. If your lactose intolerant then this recipe would be perfect for you, but you couldn't use Gorgonzola cheese. I could make speeches around the world gallantly praising Gorgonzola cheese with a cape, but if you don't like it you don't like it. So that being said, a cheesy substitute for all lactose intolerant civilians would be to make a white wash. A white wash (click for definition) is one part flour to one part cold water whisked. There are different variations to the exact ratio to the white wash, but equal parts is simple and ideal. You would add this slowly to your sauce until you've reached a desired thickness. The viscosity increases with temperature so its important to add white wash slowly and allow intermittent breaks to prevent the sauce from over thickening.