Pasta with artichokes and carrots

I know it's been much too long since I've stopped by to say hello. I have no real excuses, because honestly, I haven't been very busy. The only exciting thing that has happened this past month was that we got to go to the All Star Game that was held here in St. Louis. How often do you get the advantage of living in the city in which something big like that is happening? Patrick is a huge baseball fan, so we knew we had to go. We had a great time, and got to spend some time with friends who came from Virginia to see the game.



When we took this job, we knew that Patrick would be doing shift-work, and that the rotation would be every 3 months, switching between days, swings and mids. So, when his schedule changed again we weren't too upset. He is now working the swing shift which means he leaves the house just before 1 in the afternoon, and gets back home about 10:45 at night. The only real problem with this, as I'm sure you can guess, has been the change that I've had to do in order to get lunch and dinner ready. We like to have lunch before he leaves for work, and he normally takes his dinner in to work. I've come to realize that I don't like to do a lot of cooking at 9 in the morning. I'm just not quite awake enough to be wielding a knife with anything but trepidation before I've had coffee. Breakfast items are O.K. at that time, as are getting things started that need to cook for hours such as pasta sauce or a roast. But to cook the main meal at that time, and then eat immediately afterwards is just a little daunting at that hour. I really don't know what we have been eating, although I have vague recollections of some less than appealing foods. Things that I've tried to pull together as well as - horror of all horrors - prepared foods. Which hopefully explains my absence!



Needless to say, what I am attempting to do is begin cooking the day before. Which means that in the morning I'm not rushing around trying to get lunch ready. For the following dish - Pasta with artichokes and carrots, I made the sauce last night, so this morning all I had to do was cook the spinach fettuccine and crumble the goat cheese. I normally would prefer to use fresh artichokes, but this time I took the easy way out and used frozen. I love artichokes, but they can be unwieldy to prepare. This is a really great dish, very light tasting, which is great for the summer, but it is also very filling and best of all good for the waistline.

Pasta with artichokes and carrots
From "The Mayo Clinic Williams Sonoma Cookbook"


1 pound dried spinach fettuccine
1 tablespoon olive oil
16 oz frozen artichoke hearts, cut lengthwise into thin strips
8 carrots, finely diced
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/3 cup dry vermouth
2 tablespoons lemon juice
2 tablespoons chopped fresh thyme or 2 teaspoons dried thyme
1/2 cup crumbled soft goat cheese

Fill a large pot three-quarters full of water and bring to a boil. Add the pasta and cook until al dente, about 10 minutes, or according to package directions.

While the pasta cooks, in a large nonstick frying pan over medium-high heat, heat the olive oil. Add the artichoke hearts, carrots, and red pepper flakes and saute until the carrots are tender, 5 - 7 minutes. Stir in the garlic and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds longer. Add the vermouth, lemon juice and thyme. Cook, stirring, 30 seconds longer.

Remove 1/4 cup of the pasta cooking water, then drain the pasta thoroughly. Add the reserved cooking water and pasta to the vegetables. Stir and toss to combine.

To serve, divide among 6 individual plates. Top each with an equal amount of the goat cheese.