Pasta

As a vegetarian. you rely on a few diet staples.  Beans, salads, carrots, potatoes, and pasta.  The trick is to find a way to make it nutritional AND interesting.  It can be fun to go to different restaurants and sample things and try to make it at home.  Often times it's an absolute disgusting disaster and you can't even manage to finish whatever the hell it was you "cooked" and sometimes you get it right.  I remember one of my first few weeks at school in Bozeman I found this fancy Italian restaurant called Johnny Carino's.  Being from a small town that's about 2 1/2 hours from the closest interstate I had never encountered such a place before.  And to me, it was magic.  Now that I'm a little older I realize it's not so great and it's overpriced but at 19 I thought a lot of things were great.  Oh, to be naive again.  I can't for the life of me think of what the hell they called the dish I loved so much but it tasted a little something like this fun pasta I threw together.

You will need:
whole wheat pasta, preferably bow tie or angel hair
2 tbsp capers
2 tbsp black olives, sliced
1/2 cup canned artichoke hearts, cut into bite size pieces
1 tbsp feta cheese
1/8 cup chopped scallion
1 head garlic
1/4 cup cherry tomatoes, halved
3 tbsp olive oil
1/4 cup fresh basil, cut into small pieces
A dash of salt and pepper

So, to start you're gonna want to roast your garlic.  You won't be using all of it in this recipe but believe me, you'll eat what you don't put in the pasta.  Seriously, that shit is delicious just spread on crackers.  Or mixed in hummus.  Or just straight.  Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.Cut the top off the garlic exposing the tops of as many cloves as possible.  Place garlic in foil and pour 1 tablespoon olive oil over the top.  Add salt and pepper to taste.  Close the foil all the way around the garlic and pop it into the oven.

So, while that does it's thing you can get to work on the rest of the ingredients.  Cook pasta according to directions.  Just do a small amount.  Whatever you think you can eat.  Take the shallot and cook it on medium heat until it becomes translucent.  Then combine capers, olives, shallots, tomatoes, feta, fresh basil, and artichoke in a bowl.  Hopefully by this time the garlic should be done.  To test it you can pull it out of the oven and poke one of the cloves with a fork or whatever you have handy.  If it's soft, it's done.  If you get resistance, put it back in.  Pull out a few cloves and cut them into bite size pieces and add to the bowl.  Drain pasta and put the last bit of the olive oil in the pot with it.  Side note, but what's the difference between a pot and pan?  This is one of my life's mysteries.  Throw the bowl full of yummy in with the pasta and toss it.

Serve and enjoy!  This would pair well with a nice crisp white wine, perhaps a Sauvignon Blanc.  My faves are from New Zealand as they get a touch of grapefruit flavor to them.

Megan J