A new favorite dinner has emerged at the cabin this past year. Mostly popular in the Fall and Winter, while the Traeger is buried in snow. It is comfort food, but you can reduce the carb factor by using spaghetti or linguini that is made from red lentils or chickpeas. My favorite is the Red Lentil Spaghetti by Barilla (see below). The texture and the taste is a little different, but after having it a few times, it is now my favorite. However, the recipe tastes great with any spaghetti or Linguini. Pretty healthy with the veggies , but If you want to increase the protein, just add in some thawed, frozen shrimp.
The recipe is easy, here are the ingredients. I generally cook for two and the recipe below is for two, just double it for four:
Ingredients:
Half box Barilla Red Lentil Spaghetti or equivalent
2 cans of Snows Minced or Chopped Clams( or equivalent (see below)
1/2 cup prepared pesto, barilla or Costco or similar (see below)
2 cups of broccoli florets – cut to bite sized
One Red Bell Pepper – sliced into chunks
1/2 medium yellow or sweet onion- sliced into chunks
1 tbsp of minced garlic
3 tbsp Olive oil
Optional: red pepper flakes and/or grated Parmesan cheese. Salt and black pepper to taste.
Directions:
Put water on to boil, 2 quarts in a large pot, as you place half the oil and the minced garlic into a large skillet or wok. Add in the onion and the red pepper chunks(see photo above for the size). Sautee on medium heat. I prefer my broccoli “al dente”, so I add it after ten minutes. Add broccoli and the remainder of the olive oil and sautee for another 5 min. Open the cans of clams and drain the clams by pouring the juice into the skillet, but save off the clams as they are already cooked and will get even chewier if you cook them longer. Add the half box of spaghetti to the pot of now boiling water. It will take 7-8 minutes to cook. Simmer the clam juice as it will cook the broccoli the rest of the way – 5-10 min, as tender or firm as you like. Don’t use a lid on the skillet, as you are now reducing the clam juice. Drain the spaghetti in a colander and and dump it back into the big pot and set the heat to simmer. As you do this add the clams to the skillet and stir them in. Gradually add in the pesto sauce into the pasta pot, stirring vigorously to coat the spaghetti. Now stir in the contents of the skillet into the big pot.
I like to plate the dish in a pasta bowl, adding in pepper flakes to taste along with a few shakes of grated Parmesan cheese. Enjoy!
