Tasty Tuesday - Blue cheese and mushroom pasta

Ok, I'm warning you guys that this isn't much of a recipe but rather an experiment where I threw some things together.  But it tasted so delicious I had to share to the best of my ability!  It started with a trip to the farmer's market where we saw a local pasta maker.  It was dried pasta so it stays good for months but there were lots of fun shapes and flavors.  So we picked up this spinach and garlic fettuccini.

We also picked up an assortment of mushrooms that looked like a lot of fun. 

The third fun ingredient we picked up was a mild blue cheese from a local cheese maker.  So I decided to use these three ingredients in a way where they would hopefully be the stars.

Ingredients to make 4 servings of pasta

8 ounces pasta

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

Half medium onion

Half bell pepper

Variety of mushrooms

1 medium tomato

Milk (I used 1%, approximately 1/2 cup)

4 ounces of a mild blue cheese, chopped into small pieces

Salt and pepper to taste

Basil to sprinkle on top

Boil a pot of water for the pasta and cook according to instructions, making sure to salt the pasta water. While the pasta is cooking, wash the veggies and chop into bite size pieces. 

Heat the oil in a pan and sauté the onion and pepper for approximately 4-5 minutes.  Then add in the mushrooms and let cook for another 5 minutes.  Once the mushrooms have softened, add in the tomatoes and some salt to taste.  Let the tomatoes cook until the liquid is released and the dish begins  to look saucy.  At that point, lower the heat and add in the milk.

It's a pretty pink color at this point. I then added in the chopped up cheese and stirred until it was melted so the sauce thickened up. I added in the pasta and tossed it together.  Taste to make sure no more salt is needed since the cheese can have a varying amount of salt. Once plated, I sprinkled some chopped basil on top for a bit of freshness.

I have to tell you, I had no idea how this was going to taste.  I didn't know if it was going to be completely inedible and we were going to have to get take out.  But luckily, it ended up being delicious!  I'm sure a lot of that was because of the quality of the ingredients from the farmers market. If I made this again, I would probably add in some more mushrooms, or maybe some roasted cauliflower. 

I'm linking up with Lean Lena for Tasty Tuesday and will be linking up with Deborah and Tina for Meatless Mondays.