Meat-Free BLT Spaghetti with Butter Lettuce, Leek and Tomato (Challenging)

I am a fan of Rachael Ray's recipes and sometimes the ones that sound so bizarre can be so good. When you read the title you think, gross, am I right? I love this meal! It is definitely one of my most favorites and I hide the leftovers b/c I want to be the only one to eat them up. My husband calls this meal a restaurant meal. He has begun the habit of asking me 'what restaurant are we eating at tonight?' This meal is vegetarian as well. I use an enriched pasta with fiber to add more healthful benefits to it. When I first made this meal I did not have a food processor but since I have purchased one so where I used the blender you can also use your food processor. Bon appetite!

It may not look like what you expect spaghetti to look like b/c it is green but I will not lie to you, it is totally awesome!

http://www.rachaelray.com/recipe.php?recipe_id=3207



Serves 4-6

Ingredients:
• 1 pound spaghetti (I like using enriched with fiber angel hair pasta)
• 2 heads butter lettuce (I could not find heads of butter lettuce but the grocery stores do sell those pre-made bags of butter lettuce blends and I purchased 2 bags. One complete bag was used for the pesto sauce and the other was pulsed to mix in and top for a garnish)
• 1/2 cup flat leaf parsley (a must for being fresh, not dried)
• 1/2 cup basil leaves or 1/4 cup tarragon leaves (I have only tried this recipe with fresh basil, I guess b/c I never found fresh tarragon leaves at the grocery store.)
• 1/4 cup mint leaves (a must for being fresh, not dried)
• 1/4 cup lightly toasted pine nuts or slivered almonds (I used sliced almonds, don't worry about not finding slivered, it gets ground up in the blender or food processor, just don't use whole, those would not break up)
• 2 teaspoons lemon zest (fresh is a must)
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper
• A generous handful of grated Parmigiano Reggiano cheese, plus more for serving (I purchased the chunk and let my food processor do the grating/shredding)
• 1/4-1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil (EVOO), plus 2 tablespoons, divided
• 2 large or 4 small leeks, halved lengthwise, thinly sliced into half moons on an angle, washed and dried
• 3-4 cloves garlic, grated or chopped (I used the already minced up jar garlic, saves time)
• 1 pint grape tomatoes
• 1/2 cup dry cooking white wine
• 1/2 lemon, juiced (put the lemon in the microwave for 30 seconds to warm and more juice will juice out of it)

Preparation:
Bring a large pot of water to a boil over medium heat. Salt the water, add the spaghetti and cook 1 minute shy of al dente. Remove a ladle of the pasta water and reserve. Drain the pasta and set aside.
Meanwhile, chop and reserve 1 head lettuce.(I pulsed one bag in my food processor instead of chopping it) Chop the second head and add to a food processor with the parsley, basil or tarragon, mint, pine nuts or slivered almonds, lemon zest, salt and pepper, to taste, and the cheese. Pulse to chop the greens, then with the processor on, stream in 1/4-1/3 cup of EVOO to form a pesto. Transfer the pesto to large pasta serving bowl and reserve.
Heat 2 tablespoons EVOO in a skillet over medium heat. Add the leeks and garlic and sauté until wilted, 3 minutes. Add the grape tomatoes, stir, raise the heat a bit and put a lid on the pan. Cook for 8-10 minutes to burst the tomatoes – force the last few along with a potato masher or a wooden spoon if you get impatient. Season with salt and pepper, to taste, then stir in the wine and cook for 1 minute.
Add the ladle of the reserved pasta water to the pesto. Add the pasta to the bowl along with the tomatoes and leeks. Toss for 1 minute and season with salt and pepper, if needed. Douse the pasta with the lemon juice and garnish with the reserved chopped lettuce. Serve with extra cheese for topping. Be generous with the extra cheese, oh so yummy!

When you cut up your leeks you need to fill a bowl or a clean sink up with cold water and swish them around to remove the loose dirt that gets caught inside of them. Once rinsed, scoop up and place the cut up leeks in a clean dish towel and allow it to soak up as much of the water as possible.

The leeks frying with olive oil and garlic.

Once the leeks have cooked down add the grape tomatoes and put a lid on the pan and allow them to cook for 8-10 minutes allowing the tomatoes to burst, if you want to hasten the process, smash them with a wooden spoon, they will burst very easily. Once the tomatoes have burst add your 1/2 cup white cooking wine.

The home made pesto sauce. I did not have a food processor at the time so I used my blender and it worked just fine. This sauce is awesome!

I mixed the pasta, the home made pesto sauce, the cooked leeks with tomatoes together, then topped with some chopped up butter lettuce and shredded Parmigiano Reggiano cheese.