Pink pasta

My favorite new cookbook is The French Market Cookbook by Clotide Dusoulier, who also writes the Chocolate & Zucchini blog.  The book caught my eye first because it had vegetarian recipes.  I ended up buying it because the recipes are organized by season, resembling the progression of vegetables that I see in my CSA boxes. While I've just had the book since December, so I've just been able to try recipes in the fall and winter section, you can see that I have many things bookmarked to try in the future.  I like this cookbook that I gave it to several friends for Christmas.  (Buy it.  Make the mushroom broth with Parisian gnocchi.)

The book also has a recipe for shockingly pink pasta.  It lives up to its name.  The following is adapted from that recipe in the book.

I started with an 8 oz beet.

Peel and cut into large (1/2" - 3/4") cubes.  Put the beet cubes into your food processor.  Add 2/3 cup of milk (the recipe calls for light cream, but I used 1% milk, as it's what I had in the house -- I've made it before with cream and don't think there's an appreciable difference), 1 garlic clove, 1/2 tsp of cumin, and 1/2 tsp of salt.  Blend until smooth(ish -- there will be some beet fibers in the mixture).

Cook your pasta (~2/3 lb).  When cooked, return the pasta to the pot and put the sauce over it.

Stir on medium low heat for about a minute.

Serve with toasted almonds over it.

It's not your typical pasta flavor, owing to the cumin seeds, nor is it a typical pasta color.  However, it's a good dinner and the beet sauce is very quick to make.

Sadly, I think we won't be seeing beets in the CSA boxes for many months.  I saved this beet from some that I bought at the farmers' market a week ago, planning to make this pasta.