Southwest Pasta with Poblano Cream Sauce

I  recently had to write a short bio, something to appear on another site I’m contributing to starting next week, and I struggled more than I should have. How do I summarize who I am and what this blog is in a few sentences? I don’t have a specific focus to the recipes I post, and I’m definitely not clever enough to come up with something cute or witty to describe myself. I took everything I am, at least in terms of this blog, and broke it down to the basics. I like to make and eat good food and photograph it too. As I approach the five year anniversary of starting this blog, I am reminded of that simple goal because it still describes the heart of what I do here. I don’t always have some remarkable story to share with you, but I will always share the food that we make and love.

This pasta was inspired by a dish at a restaurant Eric and I ate at shortly after moving to Richmond. I don’t even remember the name of the restaurant because we only went there that one time, but this pasta never left my memory. I have a thing for poblanos, so I knew I had to recreate it. I tried, maybe two years ago, but the results were kind of meh. I forgot about it until recently, when I saw a basket full of gorgeous poblanos at the grocery store. I took a different approach to creating the sauce and came up with a meal that rivals the one I ate more than three years ago. The gist of it is this – black beans, corn, tomatoes and poblano are tossed with pasta in a simple and spicy poblano cream sauce. The flavors remind me of a dish I used to love at Ruby Tuesday when I was in high school and college (Sonora Chicken Pasta, in case anyone remembers it). This entire meal can be made in the time it takes to boil the pasta, and it makes fantastic leftovers. And though I haven’t tried it, I have a feeling this pasta would taste just as good at room temperature or even cold, so it would be a great dish to take to a party.