Improvised dinner: spaghettini with goat cheese, lemon, and kale

Since we are going to be out of town for about a month, we have been trying to use up all of our perishable food. Yesterday night I surveyed the refrigerator and found leftover spaghettini, half of a lemon, a bunch of kale, and -the best find of all- a knob of goat cheese left over from the party last weekend.

The resulting pasta wasn't the fanciest but it wasn't bad! Being forced to come up with something based on random odds and ends in the refrigerator/pantry is a good thing. I end up combining elements I might not have otherwise combined and, every once in awhile, discover a new flavor combination that's pretty tasty. Bonus points are in order if I use up leftovers we might have otherwise tossed.


While I warmed the pasta, I threw the kale in a saute pan with olive oil, hot chili flakes, and coarse salt. Meanwhile, in a large bowl, I added crumbled goat cheese and the lemon zest to the hot pasta and added a bit of hot water to loosen the goat cheese and coat the pasta. Once the kale was ready, I added it to the bowl and mixed. Lemony creamy pasta with kale = nice dinner. It would most certainly have been better had I cooked fresh pasta, but it was tasty and quick. I would definitely make this again.