I’ve been busy working on a post about my week in food.  By request, a few of you expressed interest in seeing the “normal, everyday” recipes we do around here, so every night since my Sweet Potato Pie post (below), I’ve been taking pics of some element of what we’ve eaten at most meals.  There’s a few keeper recipes in there, so stay tuned!

For today – RED pasta!  It looks almost gruesome.  I got the recipe from Clotilde’s amazing vegetarian cookbook, The French Market Cookbook.  She called it Shocking Pink Pasta, but mine was just not pink, it was straight-up RED.  I wasn’t a huge fan of the addition of the cumin (no offense to the original recipe – it’s not you, it’s me,)  so I swapped out dried thyme (in my head) and I think it would go great with the other flavors.  This is a good use of beets, once again.  I just love them.  This dish had great flavor, was a stretch for the imagination and was actually pretty fun – not exactly the most common words you’d use to describe a simple dinner that took 20 minutes to make, was healthy and included beets.  If I were you, I’d serve this for dinner on Halloween night.  Then you could sit back and eat a side of leftover candy and not feel too much remorse with your blood, I mean beet-stained hands 🙂  Bwahahaha…

Shocking Red Pasta
serves 4

2 cups beets, about 4 medium – peeled and cubed
1 cup light whipping cream
1 garlic clove
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon ground thyme
1 pound pasta
Freshly ground black pepper
1/2 cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
2⁄3 cup almonds, toasted

In a food processor or blender, combine the beets, cream, garlic, salt, and thyme. Process until smooth.  Bring salted water to a boil in a large pot. Add the pasta and cook until it’s al dente. Drain, return the pasta to the pot, and fold in the sauce. Return to medium heat and cook until heated through, about 1 minute.  Divide among warm bowls, sprinkle with pepper, and top with the parsley and almonds. Serve immediately.