Ricotta Pasta with Spinach

On Monday I was rooting around in the fridge looking for the ingredients I needed for Ricotta Pasta with Spinach (another Rachael Ray recipe from her 365: No Repeats cookbook) when the lights flickered and went off. Usually when this happens the power comes back on almost immediately but this time it didn't. It was a perfectly sunny day, hadn't rained since the previous week and we didn't hear any loud booms or anything, so we couldn't figure out what happened. We checked with our neighbors and they'd lost power too. Thankfully we have gas for cooking so I was still able to make dinner:


... which was rich, creamy and delicious. It is a very simple recipe - mix 2 cups ricotta, some Parm cheese, salt and pepper in a large bowl. Cook a pound of short-cut pasta according to the package directions and then add it to the bowl with the cheeses. Mix well. While the pasta is cooking, saute onions and garlic in a skillet until soft, then add two bags of baby spinach (the original recipe called for frozen spinach but I had these bags already so I used them) and 1/4 cup white wine. Cook until the spinach is wilted and then season it with salt, pepper and a dash of nutmeg. Add the spinach mixture to the pasta and cheeses. Toss to combine and then add some shredded basil (a generous amount, about 20 leaves).

We sat outside to eat and then took a long walk around the neighborhood. When we got home our neighbor on the other side told us the power had just come back on, which we were quite relieved to hear. All totalled, we lost power for over 2 hours.