Tomato Basil Pasta With Beet and Mandarin Salad

No photos here.  I forgot to take them.  I wish I had though because the dinner was great.  Sam came over and we started the evening with a great red wine that Sam kindly brought over and two types of goat cheese.  For dinner we cooked tomato basil angel hair pasta and because we share an obsession of beets we made a beet mandarin salad with feta and pine nuts.  Fantastic!

Oh, and afterwards we went to Scoops, which never disappoints.  I had mango poppy seed and tiramisu.  Sam had mango poppy seed and raspberry mascarpone. 

And you know what, despite the gratuitous amounts of food I ate this evening (did I forget to mention that i ate more pasta, salad, and a bowl of cereal after Scoops), I don't really feel disgusting. 

Tomato Basil Pasta

angel hair pasta

cherry tomatoes

basil

olive oil

parmesan reggiano

salt and pepper to taste

roasted garlic

1. preheat oven to 400 and roast garlic in a foil pouch for about a hour, or until tender and slightly browned

2. heavily salt boiling water and cook pasta 

3. halve tomatoes and chop basil

4. mix the basil, tomatoes, 1/4 cup olive oil, roasted garlic and salt to taste

5. drain pasta 

6. add pasta to tomato basil mixture with parmesan cheese until well coated

Beet Mandarin Salad

2 beets

1 can mandarin oranges

handful of pint

toasted pine nuts

2 tablespoons white wine vinegar

2 tablespoons olive oil

2 tablespoons mandarin orange syrup

juice of half a lemon 

1/4 cup feta cheese

1. preheat oven to 400 and roast beets for about a hour and a half in a foil pouch

2. dice the beets

3. mix the beets with drained mandarin oranges

4. whisk the olive oil, reserved mandarin syrup, vinegar, lemon juice, and a pinch of salt

5. pour dressing over the beet mandarin mixture

6. toss with pine nuts and feta and chopped mint