Main Dish or Side Dish: Cold Spinach Linguine Pasta Salad & Lavender Infused Lemonade

Well, It's not every day that you meet a dear friend who LOVES food and LOVES talking about it as much as you do!!! My sweet friend Marta is JUST THAT! We can talk about anything under the sun...but get us talking about food and the hours fly! She was so sweet to have our family of four over for dinner last week and she seriously made some AMAZING dishes. I asked if she would be interested in being my guest blogger this week and sharing a few of the recipes she made. Lucky for us, she gladly excepted! I hope you enjoy her and her two delicious recipes! I am wishing I had a plate of her yummy pasta and a cup of lemonade RIGHT NOW!!! Enjoy!




One of our favorite pasta dishes to make for family and friends is the Cold Spinach Linguine Pasta Salad. It always hits the spot with the prosciutto for crispiness and the feta cheese for some tartness and creaminess! We made it this past weekend for our great friends, The Sorensens. We also sipped on some Lavender Infused Lemonade, which I don't have a picture of. These are just a few recipes we enjoyed last weekend, we hope you enjoy them too!

Cold Spinach Linguine Pasta Salad

1 # (box) of Linguine

1 bag of fresh baby spinach

6 oz – thinly sliced prosciutto

2 Tbsp – finely chopped garlic (I use the whole bunch on mine!)

2 Tbsp – fresh basil

2 Tbsp – fresh oregano

¾ cup – olive oil

½ # tomato basil feta cheese (crumbled) or Gorgonzola cheese (crumbled)

½ cup – pine nuts or almonds (toasted golden)

Boil linguine. Slice spinach in thin strips. Cook prosciutto, garlic, basil, oregano in ½ cup olive oil on medium heat until browned, about 3 minutes (you can make this dressing ahead, I usually make it a night ahead).

When pasta is drained, add remaining ¼ cup of olive oil and toss the dressing and the remaining ingredients.

Garnish: fresh basil and grated fresh Parmesan cheese




Lavender Infused Lemonade

2 1/2 cups of water
1 cup sugar

Bring the water and sugar to a boil. Add four lavender tops (just the Flowers) and cover for one hour.

Then add the remaining ingredients below.

1 cup lemon juice
2 1/2 cups cold water
ice

I doubled the recipe to make enough for 4-6 guests. You can leave the lavender in lemonade and add sliced lemons to make it look pretty!



Bon Appetit!