Day 68: Conchiglie with spinach

Every Sunday, when we come home from the swimming pool, there are two certainties: (1) I will be starving with hunger; and (2) after being in chorinated water, anything (even cardboard!) will taste good (not that I eat cardboard or anything!). Therefore, I made the Conchiglie with spinach one Sunday for lunch and I was really looking forward to trying this recipe as I love spinach.

I started off by boiling the pasta in salted water. I used penne pasta instead of conchiglie though. That gave me time to toast some pine nuts in a small frying pan on a high heat for 1 minute. After about 12 minutes, I drained the pasta but left about 50ml in the pan and added in baby spinach leaves. I let them wilt for 2 minutes and then tipped the lot into a large bowl and added crumbled Gorgonzola cheese and the pine nuts and then mixed. I finished the dish off with some freshly cracked black pepper.

The verdict…

Remember I said that after going swimming, anything tastes better – even cardboard? Well, I take that back. I was majorly disappointed with this dish. I gave it 3 marks out of 10. One mark for how easy it was to prepare, one mark for how easy it was to cook and one mark for having healthy spinach in it. Although it was super easy to make, I just found it so bland which was hard to believe when it had spinach and cheese in it which I both love. I also love pine nuts. I just don’t get why I didn’t like it. Having not made The List, all I can say is that if you’re really stuck to make something quick and you have these ingredients in stock, then work away but don’t be expecting any explosion of tastes. And I would really, really love to hear from anyone who has made this dish and ask them what they thought so, if you have, please post a comment below!

On another note, I read somewhere online that there are actually 215 recipes in this cookbook so a bit more than the 180+ it says. Now that I’m on Day 68, it is hard to believe that I am over a third of the way through the book. It’s only when I see the photos in my blog folder that I realise the true amount of cooking which I’ve done so far on the Challenge. Dear Husband certainly isn't complaining - although it's a good job I didn't give him this dish to try! Also, I would really like to thank you all for continuing to read and hope you are still enjoying it. If you’ve tried any of the recipes yourself, please post a comment below and let me know how you got on as I love to know someone else’s perspective! Until tomorrow…