Cooking with Dr. Monkey

Today's episode:Or, a new recipe I made up last night, ham and cheese pasta!I started by chopping up one leek and rinsing it off under cold water, leeks are always dirty for some reason, then I sauteed it in a a mixture of three table spoons of extra virgin olive oil, one third of a cup of white wine (Which was Newman's Own Chardonnay and isn't it great that now I can help a sick kid while I get drunk and cook with white wine!), and a couple tablespoons of Brummel and Brown, which is a butter substitute made from yogurt. While my leeks simmered and soaked up that white wine flavor I diced one third of a red bell pepper and I added a tablespoon of black pepper and a few chopped cloves of garlic to the pan. Then I put a lid on it and let it all simmer.Next I thinly sliced some ham off a precooked ham I got yesterday at the grocery store. I then diced the sliced up ham and it ended up being about a cup worth of ham pieces. I then tossed them in with the leeks and red pepper. I also put on some water for my pasta as my meat and veggies simmered in my white wine/olive oil/butter substitute sauce. (Note to my vegetarian readers you can substitute mushrooms/zucchini/egg plant for the ham if you like.)

As everything cooked up I washed and chopped up one third of a bag of baby spinach. I then put it in with the ham and leeks. It all simmered as my pasta cooked.When the pasta was done I put it in the pan with the ham and leeks and I swirled it around so that it mixed with everything and it got good and coated with the light white wine sauce. I also added one more tablespoon of butter substitute and let it melt before I plated everything. Once plated I grated a little Romano cheese over the top of it and I served it up with a few slices of spanakopita bread that we got from Scratch Bakery over the weekend.

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Perhaps you're wondering, "How did your new dish taste Dr. Monkey?" Well kids, the answer would be, "Christmas on a cracker, it was out of this world good." This one is going into my regular repertoire.