TtoE pasta with spinach

Back in 2020, I told you about eating your Japanese greens. At supermarket and produce stands, you'll see a variety of Asian vegetables such as hakusai, komatsuna, and taasai. I've even tried hyper-seasonal greens such as shukurai and zenmai (fiddleheads) at this time of year.

It's late February and I'm taking advantage of a humble and ubiquitous green, spinach. In late February, the nearby supermarket here in northern Chiba Prefecture has reasonably-priced bags of this leafy vegetable.

In heavy rotation in my kitchen is tomato-based pasta sauce, so in it went. The dish is simple, making the most of veggies in the fridge. To make the pasta sauce, chopped carrots and onions, sliced some shiitake mushrooms, and crushed some garlic. I fried it until glistening in a little vegetable oil before adding a can of whole tomatoes. For flavoring, I used oregano, parsley, cumin, a dash each of soy sauce and ponzu, and salt and pepper. After the sauce stewed on low heat, I heated the spinach until wilted. It went well over spaghetti.

It's also accidentally vegetarian. A variation in my kitchen is the addition of dry sausage like this one. I grill it in the toaster oven before adding it to the simmering sauce.

How do you like your spinach? Do you add Japanese flavors to your pasta sauces?