You can never have too many pasta recipes.
Doesn’t it seem like when we are invited to a dinner or potluck it’s hard to come up with something different to make. I know I have a problem and I’ve been cooking for a very long time. I’m always in search for something unusual that someone else might not show up with. And, when it comes to pasta dishes it seems like you see the same ingredients — tomatoes, peppers, onions etc. I really like the idea of the enchilada sauce in this recipe mixed with the yogurt or sour cream and then the addition of the Cotija cheese and green olives.
This is a great room temperature pasta main dish, side dish, or I guess it could pass for a pasta salad. Either way, it’s delicious.
The colors from this pasta blend from Pappardelle’s come from blue corn flour, red chili peppers, green jalapeño, dried spinach, paprika, grape skins extract and some turmeric. I really wanted the pasta to retain the beautiful colors even though it might be covered up with the enchilada sauce mixture; but it did not.
In our area this pasta is sold at Berings hardware in Houston, but they also sell in farmer’s markets across the US. So check out your state to see if you have one of their vendors close to you selling in a farmer’s market or store.
For such beautiful ingredients from the beginning, this turned out to be one of the UGLIEST dishes I have ever made but I’m posting it because my husband said it was delicious. He did preface that with no one would ever eat that if you put it out on a table BUT it’s good. I think if you were to use any type of plain pasta (with grooves) the dish would not turn such an awful color. See pic at the bottom of what it looked like by the time it sat a couple of hours.
I do encourage you to try this recipe because the flavors together are really good. Just don’t use colored pastas.
Lots of yummy ingredients.
Sauce the onions until translucent.
Add in the beans and enchilada sauce.
Simmer until thickened, about 6 minutes.
Isn’t this beautiful pasta? I should have done a simple pesto sauce with this because wait until you see the below picture. The brown/orange color pasta did not look good in the finished recipe.
Mix the pasta with the enchilada sauce mixture. Still looks good at this point.
Add in the green olives and it still is an appetizing dish.
Add in the chopped avocado right before serving.
At this point, the dish still looks appetizing.
I would served this either warm or at room temperature as a side dish or vegetarian (?) option.
Southwest Pasta with Black Beans and Cotija Cheese
Ingredients
- 1/2 lb. Pappardelle's Southwestern Blend Pasta
- 1 onion finely chopped
- 4 cloves garlic minced
- 1 Tbsp. olive oil
- 1-15 oz. can black beans rinsed and drained
- 1/4 c. sour cream or plain yogurt
- 1-10 oz. can of enchilada sauce
- 8 oz. Cotija cheese crumbled (or feta)
- 1 bunch scallions chopped
- 1 bunch cilantro coarsely chopped
- 1/2 c. green olives cut in half
- 1 avocado cut into cubes
Instructions
- Cook pasta in 6-8 quarts of rapidly boiling water until al dente (about 5-8 minutes) Rinse with cold water
- While pasta is cooking in a heavy saucepan cook onions and garlic in olive oil over medium high heat. Add beans and enchilada sauce, simmer gently, stirring occasionally until thickened, about 6 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in sour cream and salt to taste
- In a large serving bowl add pasta. Pour sauce over the top. Add cheese, scallions, cilantro, green olives and avocado. Mix well.
- Serve at room temperature
- Serves 4-6.
Like I said, my husband said if anyone saw this on a table they would not eat it — but he also said it was very good. The colors seemed to start turning brown and I guess it was the colors of the pasta. Try this with any type of groovy pasta.
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Southwest Pasta with Black Beans and Cotija Cheese
January 20, 2015 at 4:49 am[…] Doesn’t it seem like when we are invited to a dinner or potluck it’s hard to come up with something different to make. I know I have a problem and I’ve been cooking for a very long time. I’m always in search for something …. Read the post at http://rosemaryandthegoat.com/2015/01/05/southwest-pasta-with-black-beans-and-cotija-cheese/ […]