Linguine with Gorgonzola, Green Beans, Potatoes & Sage

This Saturday’s recipe was linguine with veggies and bleu cheese. I’m not a huge fan of bleu cheese, but thought I’d still give it a try.

Suggested total time: 30 minutes
Recipe: Linguine with Gorgonzola, Potatoes, Green Beans, and Sage (via www.myrecipes.com)
Ingredients:

• 2 medium Yukon Gold potatoes
• 1 tablespoon salt
• 1 pound linguine
• 10 ounce green beans, cut into 2-in. lengths, or 1 bag (10 oz.) frozen cut green beans
• 6 fresh sage leaves, plus more for garnish
• 8 ounces gorgonzola dolce or other soft blue cheese, such as Fourme d’Ambert
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, plus more for garnish

Preparation:
Peel potatoes and cut into 3/4-in. pieces. Put in a large pot, add 2 qts. water, cover, and bring to a boil. Add salt and linguine. Stir, cover, and return to a vigorous boil. Add green beans, cover, and bring back to a boil. Uncover and cook until linguine is tender to the bite, about 5 minutes. Meanwhile, chop sage leaves. In a large serving bowl, mash cheese, butter, sage, and pepper together. Set aside. Reserve 1/2 cup pasta water and set aside. Drain pasta and vegetables, shaking off as much water as possible. Pour pasta and vegetables on top of cheese-butter mixture. Toss to combine until cheese melts and coats pasta. If resulting sauce is too thick, add reserved pasta water, 1 tbsp. at a time. Serve hot, garnished with additional sage or pepper if you like.

This recipe was really easy to follow. I used 12 oz of linguine instead of a pound. I also used fresh green and yellow beans from my grandmother’s garden and added in about 12 oz of them instead of 10. I used fresh sage and basil leaves from the garden as well. I couldn’t find 8 oz of gorgonzola cheese at any of the grocery stores I went to, so I opted to use 5 ounces of crumbled gorgonzola cheese. I then added in one more ounce of butter to make up for not having as much cheese as the recipe called for. It tasted really good! I was surprised; I thought the gorgonzola cheese wouldn’t taste very good with the vegetables. I was wrong!

Also, it took me about forty minutes all together. I’m not sure if the recipe allowed time for the peeling of the potatoes or not.

Photo of the finished product:

Next week’s recipe: a surprise recipe!