Penne with spinach and fresh mozzarrella

I love fresh mozzarrella, and it's a great, relatively cheap way to add something extra to pastas, salads and sandwiches. Last night I made a very easy adaptation of a dish my mom makes.




Ingredients
Penne pasta
Extra virgin olive oil
10 cherry tomatoes
8 small mushrooms
1/2 white onion
Minced garlic (I use it out of the jar--it lasts forever)
Baby spinach
8 small balls of fresh mozzarrella cheese, quartered
Chicken stock
(Serves two.)


I like to prep all my ingredients before I even start boiling water, just because I don't want to be running around my kitchen. Slice the mushrooms as thin as you can, quarter the tomatoes (try to get rid of the seeds if you can, they add a lot of bitterness), and give the onions a good chop. As you can see in the picture, nothing is too small, so there's still a bit of crunch.

Start boiling a pot of salted water. Once it starts rolling, toss in as much pasta as you want. Everyone is different. You want to it be tender, but not gummy, so start checking it after about 7 minutes.

Heat up a saute pan over medium heat, and add enough olive oil to coat the bottom of the pan. Toss in the onions and cook until they start to brown, then toss in the mushrooms. Once the mushrooms soften, add the tomatoes.



Start pressing your spoon/spatula down onto the tomatoes, so they release their juice and start to deconstruct. You're looking for the skin to start peeling off. Add a small amount of chicken stock into the pan--keep in mind that we're not making a soup, we just want a bit more liquid to soak up the ingredients. Let the mixture simmer and color the juice--it should start to look a little messy and jumbled together, which is perfect. Now throw a handful of spinach per serving on top. Don't touch it, just let the heat wilt it.


By now the pasta should be done, so take it off the stove and drain it. Add the quartered pieces of cheese to the saute pan, then pour the pasta on top.


Toss and enjoy.