Meat Free BLT Spaghetti with Butter Lettuce, Leek and Tomato

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I made this tonight after a busy day and it really did come together in 30 min. Only substitutions I made were that I used whole wheat pasta, and asiago in place of the parmesan bc I realized after I started cooking that I was out of parm! I really liked the flavors of the pesto and the leek/tomato pan sauce, (tasted before I served to my mom! especially with the white wine base that added a nice tang you don't get from using stock. But I think the pasta/sauce ratio wasn't right - next time I will either use less pasta (as it was there were plenty of leftovers or make more pesto and leek sauce, to get the full flavor. The fresh butter lettuce "garnish" at the end was a surprising crunchy touch that was really different and pleasant, I will use that technique in other pastas in the future, too.

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I used this recipe as a guide for making my own salad meets pasta dish. For the pasta I used gluten-free corn pasta (because I am gluten-free and didn't make a pesto. I dont have a blender so I just did some herb and lettuce chiffonade. I don't like butter lettuse, I wanted something with more flavor. Instead I used some large leafed spinach and used curly parsley because the store didn't have any Italian parsley. Again the store didn't have grape tomatoes so I quartered super cherry tomatoes and used pepitas as my nut of choice. I really liked the concept of feeling like I'm getting enough greens in a pasta dish, maybe I'm a weird vegetarian freak like that. To me Rachael Ray is a great resource for ideas on how to put together a meal in a slightly different but familiar way. Her recipes are great recipes to tweek and have successful yummy outcomes...if you know what you are doing.

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I thought this recipe was really good! I was looking for a good vegetarian meal to try, and I found this one. Lots of flavor!

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I really liked the fresh flavor of this dish. I also made the dish more difficult by chopping all the herbs and lettuce. For the part that you use to make the pesto, there's no need to even chop it. Just throw it right into the food processor and save yourself the time. I cut the recipe in half since it's just my husband and I. Next time, even if I half it, I think I will use the full amount of tomatoes and leeks. They add such a nice flavor and I would have liked a little more in the dish. Putting fresh lettuce into the pasta was different. I had never done that before. I don't think that really added to the dish. Next time, I will probably just put all of the lettuce into the pesto. All in all, I really liked the flavor of this dish. My husband, who initially said, "There's no meat?" agreed with Rachel and said he didn't miss the meat. Now I have another vegetarian dish to make for my vegetarian friends.

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I generally love most of Racheal's recipes, but this was not a great flavor. The butter lettuce in the pesto did not work...wished I had just made a regular pesto sauce with basil and it might have been better.

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Took a little more time than expected, but then I'm not Rachel. Delicious even though I overcooked the pasta. We live in a small town so finding fresh basil (going to start growing my own and Parm-Reggiano is difficult to say the least, I had to substitute with just regular Parm, but it was good, good, good and got rave reviews from the family. The lemon zest adds so much. Leftovers, few though they were, remained a taste treat. This will become a oft made meal good enough for guests and even pot-luck.

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When you can make a "Meat & Potato" Husband and Vegetarian Mother happy with one meal it's great!!! This was an awesome dish. I did short cut with the pesto, I didn't make my own but bought a tomato basil pesto and mixed it in the same way. Everything else was the same.

I also made the Stuffed Zucchini (minus mushrooms and they were a hit. Only complaint was there wasn't enough!

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I am always amazed at commenters who admit they did not follow the recipe and proceed to give the recipe a bad review.

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Very herbal flavor but bland. I could not bring myself to use the lettuce so I substituted baby spinach leaves instead. Family did not like it. The next day I put in about two pounds of shrimp, some baby portabella mushrooms, heated it up in a pan, added a cup of white wine, then put in a bottle of Iron Chef Sesame Sauce. Turned out very well. Hope you have better luck!