Birthday Pasta Dinner

One of my best friend's had a birthday last week and I made this yummy angel hair pasta dinner for her and brought the left overs for lunch today. I always go a little light on sauce but now that it's hot (Texas summers eesh), I try to keep things sauce free when I make pasta.

My apologies for the rotten picture -- the lighting is terrible in our office lunch room. :(

Lauren's Summer Pasta:

• 1 pkg. angel hair pasta
• ~2 cups of sun-dried tomatoes (I bought mine at the olive bar at HEB)
• 2 pkgs. of sliced mushrooms
• 0.5 cup pine nuts
• 1 small pkg. crumbled feta cheese
• 2 pkg. fresh basil, chopped (a little more than 2 cups total)
• 0.25 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese
• 0.25 stick of unsalted butter
• splash of white wine
• 1.5 teaspoons minced garlic
• splash of chicken broth
• 2 Tbs. olive oil

In a large walled pan, melt butter and sautee garlic on med/low heat. Add mushrooms (one bag at a time) and stir. When mushrooms start to stick a little to the pan, splash in chicken broth and white wine. Add in sundried tomatoes, stir, cover and let simmer. Boil water for pasta, add in pasta when ready and stir constantly. After about 8 min. start checking pasta. It's ready when it's al dente (meaning slightly firm but definitely not crunchy). Add pine nuts to mushrooms and tomatoes, cover and simmer. Drain your pasta and set aside to be added to your mushrooms, pine nuts, and tomatoes. To make sure everything is well mixed, add your pasta serving at a time and toss. (My pan wasn't large enough to add all of the pasta so I ended up freezings about 3 cups of it.) Drizzle one tbs. of olive oil and sprinkle half of your parmesan cheese, toss, and repeat with the other tbs. of oil and remaining parmesan. Sprinkle feta cheese and chopped basil, toss well until all is blended. Serve immediately.

*My apologies for not having specific measurements. When I created this recipe, I just threw it all together hoping for the best (terrible I know!). The next time I make it, I will be sure to measure everything properly and then update this post.

Happy eating! <3