Spinach Artichoke Rigatoni: No Cheese, No Problem (And. . . More Fall Hikes)

We've been having a swell time playing catch up with our outdoor activities. (And I've been playing catch up with blogging--as evidenced by my "oopsie" in somehow hitting the "publish" button prior to adding my verbiage to this post! Hey, it's Monday. . . I'm almost fifty, etc.)

 So we spent the better part of the weekend "outside". It was gorgeous here. When we got home yesterday afternoon, I wanted a really homey, yummy pasta dish. Lucky for me, the Pioneer Woman posted her lovely spinach artichoke pasta dish--complete with gobs of cheese and real milk. It looked divine and I HAD to have some. NOW. 

I will admit that baking really cheesy and really dairy-ish dishes used to send me into fits of undone. I'd all but closed the book on most of them. But as vegans all over creation will attest, we have in our arsenal all one needs to throw down some amazing creamy, cheesy goodness: nutritional yeast. Or "nutch" as we like to call it. It's that yellowish stuff we buy in bulk at Whole Foods. It's my go-to whenever a dish like spinach artichoke pasta comes my way. 

I have loved Ree's blog for ages now. I admire her for her contribution to my cooking repertoire. In doing this dish the vegan way, I had to make only a few changes to her recipe. So I'll direct you to PW for the overall gist of the making of this incredibly good dinner, and list for you here the adaptations I made to it. You have to remember that you are going to need to adjust the amount of unsweetened coconut milk/flour mixture you use based on the size of the pasta you select. I sent Dr. Thyme to the store late yesterday afternoon to pick up what I showed him in the photo of Ree's dish (clearly penne pasta). We both looked at the play-by-play of the dish, I scrolled down the recipe so I could show him exactly which pasta we'd need. He said, Got it, and left. (We also needed two bags of baby spinach and canned artichokes--so he actually had 3 items on his list.) I only resort to sending husband to the store in dire circumstances, and try to limit his shopping list to no more than five items. Let's just say, our marriage thanks me for doing this. 

When he got home, he had rigatoni. Well, as I have discovered of late--I have trouble recalling names of "things". I see it, but the words fail me. It's that "Almost Fifty" curse again. When I showed him the picture from the recipe, he said "rigatoni". I somehow said "yes" in agreement. BUT clearly she used penne. My pasta word vocabulary had left me. Anyway, when DH got home, I kept my mouth shut when I pulled the box of HUGE rigatoni pasta out of the bag. Dang it. Not what we SAW. But again, words failed me. (Our marriage thanked me again for this.) I was hungry and on low blood sugar, so I just got to cooking. I'd need to adjust for the area of pasta-to-sauce ratio and make more cheesy sauce. No biggie really. But still. 

Here's a horrible photo of the dish pre-oven. But you get the idea: the sauce is really key. So what you do is this: follow Ree's recipe. For making the roux (the flour and milk mixture), I subbed unsweetened coconut milk. For the cheese--I added 1/4 cup of Daiya Mozzarella cheese to the sauce, then 1/3 cup of nutritional yeast--in place of her Parmesan, plus a 1/4 teaspoon of chili flakes, plus 1/2 tablespoon of onion powder--and 1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg. Before I sauteed the spinach leaves, I added a minced onion and TEN cloves of garlic (yes, I said ten--heck you could use the whole head if you are so inclined), some dried oregano and thyme. You can play with the herbs and add any combo you'd like, really. Then, I topped the dish with bread crumbs, freshly ground pepper, dried parsley and drizzled olive oil over the top and baked it at 425 for 20 minutes. Let me tell you--this was so good, I couldn't even stop to get a picture of this on the plate! Better yet, the rigatoni pasta shells, in my opinion, really made this dish over-the-top delish. So. Good. (*Thank you DH for your shopping prowess.)

The Meramec River. Beautiful walk along the river. Beautiful even more with the fall colors beginning to show.

We visited Laumeier Sculpture Park yesterday. Dr. Thyme loved this piece called, Redwood I by Johann Feilacher. He likened it to something from "Lost"--only without the big toes.

I love lines.

I adore this piece: Man with Briefcase by Jonathan Borofsky. It moves me to my core every single time I see it. How can it not? Read below the details of this man's work. 

Two kids in the park. Lovely day. Lovely weekend.