My New Favorite Pasta

I'm not exactly sure what to title this recipe. "Pasta with garlic oil, cherry tomatoes, spinach, kalamata olives, and a whole lot of cheese" is a mouthful- literally and figuratively. But it's delicious.

Ingredients

• 1.5 cups dry radiatore pasta
• 2 oz. fresh baby spinach
• 1/2 cup cherry tomatoes
• 1/4 cups chopped pitted kalamata olives
• 2 T extra virgin olive oil
• 2 large garlic cloves
• 1/2 cup grated asiago cheese

1. Before you start cooking anything, do your prep-work. Halve the cherry tomatoes. Roughly chop the spinach and olives. Crush one garlic clove, but don't chop it. Grate the asiago cheese.

2. Cook the pasta in boiling salted water until al dente.

3. While the pasta is boiling, start heating the olive oil in a pan with the crushed garlic on medium heat. Make sure you put the garlic in the cold oil so they come to temperature together. You want to get as much flavor out of the garlic as possible.

4. When the garlic starts turning golden-brown, discard it. Lower the heat and add the spinach, tomatoes, and olives to the oil. Cook until the leaves are wilted.

5. Add the cooked pasta directly to the pan with the spinach mixture.

6. Top with the grated asiago cheese and mix everything together!

Sidenotes

• If you want more garlic flavor, you have a couple different options. You can chop the garlic and leave it in the oil with the spinach mixture, or you can add one more crushed garlic clove and still discard it before adding the spinach.
• It seems like this might bland since there's no real "sauce," but it's far from that. The garlicy oil combined with the nutty, sharp asiago creates a super-flavorful dish.
• If you feel like the "sauce" is too thin, add some pasta water to it. The starch will help thicken everything.
• This is more like a template than a recipe. Don't pay too much attention to my measurements or even what I put in the pasta. If you really like spinach, add more. If you hate olives, don't use them. There are no real rules to this.