Pasta with Tomato and Blue Cheese Sauce

If you've never heard of Ree Drummond, the Pioneer Woman, I encourage you to check her out! Many people enjoy her blog because she posts step-by-step pictures. Her cookbook is on my wishlist, and she usually posts at least one recipe a week that I drool over. This week, that recipe is her Pasta with Tomato-Blue Cheese Sauce. My biggest alteration was that I used crushed tomatoes in place of diced tomatoes to create more of a homogeneous creamy sauce.

Ingredients

• 1 lb thin spaghetti
• olive oil
• 2-3 cloves garlic, minced
• 28-oz. can crushed tomatoes
• sugar, salt, and pepper to taste
• 3/4 cup heavy cream
• 3 to 4 oz. blue cheese
• 1 giant handful, about 3-4 cups baby spinach

Directions

1. Cook thin spaghetti according to package directions.
2. Heat large frying pan over medium heat. Add olive oil.
3. Add garlic and cook for about 1 minute.
4. Add crushed tomatoes and cook, uncovered, for about 10 minutes. Season with a pinch of sugar, and salt and pepper to taste.
5. Lower heat to low, then add up to 3/4 cup heavy cream. Stir well.
6. Crumble blue cheese with fingers and sprinkle all around the pan. Stir well. Turn off heat.
7. Right before serving, add a giant handful of baby spinach and stir into sauce.
8. Pour sauce onto pasta and stir to mix. Spinach will wilt from the heat. Serve and enjoy!

Comments

The blue cheese in this dish is very fragrant but not overwhelming in flavor. As Dan the Man pointed out, the spinach is what holds much of the flavor, so it's important not to skimp on this ingredient. The dish was very rich but delicious!