Capellini with Chicken, Spinach and Camembert

So I've been in my new apartment for one week now and I am loving it! Having my own space is amazing and something I was completely ready for. Unfortunately, these first couple of weeks in my new place also coincide with a couple of week of night shifts for school. So with all of this going on I hardly know what day it is, or what is going on with the rest of the world. Even so, that doesn't mean I want to eat poorly so I made sure to stock my cupboards and pantry full as soon as I could so I would have the ingredients to make simple and quick meals during these crazy couple of weeks. 

This pasta dish was one of my first meals in my new apartment (the very first meal being a fantastic peanut butter and banana sandwich on freshly made bread, delicious, but not as fun to talk about!) I threw it together with the stuff in my fridge and I was very pleased with how it turned out. Some roasted broccoli was all I needed to round it out. 

There is nothing fancy about this simple dish. It's really just spaghetti with some wilted spinach and chicken, finished off with one of my new favorites, Camembert cheese. I also added in some onions and garlic for flavor. If I had been trying to make this extra fancy I could have made a sauce with the cheese, using a roux and melting the cheese into it until smooth, but I was much too lazy for that. I just threw it in at the end and let it gently melt into the hot pasta. Perfect technique, no; still absolutely delicious and so much easier, yes!

Capellini with Chicken, Spinach and Camembert
From Jana
Ingredients

• Olive oil
• 1/4 small onion, sliced thin
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 4 ounces whole wheat capellini
• Handful spinach
• 4 ounces cooked chicken
• 2 ounces (or more!) Camembert cheese
• Pasta water
• Salt
• Parmesan cheese, for sprinkling on top

Directions

Fill a large pot with water, add a good handful of salt and bring water to boil. While the water is heating, add a couple of teaspoons of olive oil to a saute pan over medium heat. Once hot, add the onions and a pinch of salt. Saute the onions until they begin to soften and just start to brown, add garlic and cook until fragrant.

Once water begins to boil, cook capellini until just al dente. About 1-2 minutes before the pasta is finished cooking, add the spinach and the cooked chicken to the pan with the onions and garlic. Add a ladleful of pasta water and let the spinach begin to wilt.

When the pasta is finished cooking, add it to the saute pan along with the camembert. The heat from the pasta will continue to wilt the spinach and start to melt the cheese. Mix it all together in the saute pan, adding more pasta water if needed to form a nice sauce. Finish with a sprinkling of parmesan cheese if desired. 

Serves 2