Summer Vegetable Pasta with Crispy Goat Cheese Medallions

"Don't even say the word 'pasta.' It sounds so hopeless, like surrender: 'Pasta would be easy.' Yes, yes it would. Pasta. It doesn't mean anything. It's just a euphemism people invented when they stopped eating spaghetti."

That's a quote from one of my favorite plays. Anthony Hopkins said the line in the movie, but when I read it, the voice I hear belongs to Dan Derks, who played Hopkins' character on stage when we were in college. It's from a bit of dialogue really just meant to warm the audience up to the beginning of the second act. It's a throwaway scene, and not one terribly essential to the plot, but a really good point nonetheless. Pasta is what you make when you're feeling uninspired or faced with an empty fridge. It's the food equivalent of wearing your oldest, rattiest clothes the day before you can no longer put off doing laundry.

So it's good to have a few variations on pasta in your back pocket for those days when it just can't be avoided. This is one I based on a recipe from Eating Well magazine, and one of which I actually look forward to eating the leftovers for lunch the next day.

Ingredients:

• 8 ounces pasta (Something bite-sized like bow-tie or elbow works best.)
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano or other savory herb.
• 1 1/2 tablespoons breadcrumbs (Its can be hard to find corn-free breadcrumbs. You maybe have to make your own by putting toast through the food processor. Or, if you have an electric spice grinder, crushed raw lentils make an extra-crispy coating.)
• 4 ounces goat cheese (As far as I know, all goat cheese is pasture raised. They don't have goat factory farms...do they?)
• 2 tablespoons of your favorite high-heat cooking oil
• 1 1/2 pints cherry tomatoes, halved
• 2 cloves garlic, sliced
• salt and pepper to taste
• 6 cups baby spinach

Directions:

1. Preheat broiler and line a small baking sheet with tin foil.
2. Cook pasta according to package directions and drain, saving 1/2 cup of the cooking water.
3. Combine breadcrumbs and oregano. Divide goat cheese into 4 equal portions. Shake each into a disk shape. Coat the cheese disks in bread crumb mixture. Place disks on the baking sheet and set aside.
4. Heat oil in a large skillet over medium-low heat. Add tomatoes, garlic, salt and pepper. Cook until tomatoes release their juice, about 2 minutes.
5. Stir in the pasta water, spinach, and pasta until well mixed and spinach has warmed.
6. Broil the goat cheese rounds, watching closely, until light brown and crispy on top, about 2 minutes. Divide pasta mixture into 4 portions and top each with a goat cheese medallion.

Serves 4.