Wednesday, September 7, 2011

Kitchen Sink Pasta

This is going to be another short post describing my cooking adventures thus far. Although I am no Michelle (check out her blog at http://justachefsdaughter.blogspot.com/ It's awesome, and hilarious, just do it) I am doing my best to feed myself with the supplies that I have. So I'll give you a little taste (See that mad word play there? Sweet) (oh, there's another one.) of what I've been cooking up.  I'm eventually going to be famous for the idea of the "Kitchen Sink Pasta." This involves taking whatever you have, and combining it into delicious things that you didn't have to measure, prepare to make, or generally think ahead.

Last night I pleasantly surprised myself with this little whipper snapper. Ingredients:
Ham
Olive Oil
Black Pepper
Basil
Red Wine
Garlic
Pasta (Rigatoni if you must know)
And a Mystery Vegetable.

Mystery vegetable? What is that.
Duh, that's the point. This isn't some kind of sick competitive show where you cook until you snap and beat the other competitors with a skillet kind of deal, this is life. And life in Italy where I don't read Italian. So Mystery vegetable is exactly what I had. (I later found out it was Fennel. And I will give a gold star to anyone who knows something good to make with it.) The precursor to this is to being the pasta... so get on that. Then I minced the garlic--sauté in olive oil, add freshly chopped basil, chop mystery veggie, and add to mix, pour in some red wine and add ham.  Sauté for a bit before adding black pepper. Check pasta (this is an important step... So make sure you do that).  I let it simmer there for a little bit until the pasta was done. Then I drained the pasta, and poured my little concoction over it.

At first I couldn't believe my taste buds. Is this real life? Ok, the mystery vegetable was a little strange, but nothing terrible, and not really noticeable. So to check my senses, I called Kate over and stabbed a piece of ham-"Try this." From that point on, I had to beat her away from my plate with a spatula. So not all bad. There are a few things I would change....  Like maybe I would pour it over rice instead of pasta, and get an onion instead of fennel, and not let Kate eat all of my food. But other than that, I was very pleased. High five me!

Tonight's was a similar principle, but not quite as delicious. For one I decided that I should use some of the potatoes we have. And fresh basil is better than the 'spice' kind for this sort of thing... and anyway, it was edible, but not quite as tasty.

But the gouda news is that now I'm thinking! (I'm in Italy, check it)  Suddenly I feel like I can actually make things if necessary. And that's a good thing! So maybe I'll actually make a list of things I need when I go to the grocery store next.  I'll just have Erica take me. She literally knows every store in the city. I didn't think it was humanly possible, but she's a star and makes purdy baked goods. Winner. Winner. Chicken. Dinner. (hey, now that's an idea)

1 comment:

  1. I think you're a great chef.....Dad wants to know if Italy has pine nuts.

    love, Mom

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