Success!

After Friday's nights failure, I figured I should prove I'm not completely incapable of making kid-friendly food. So Parker happens to share my love for pretty much whatever pasta I throw at him. (Or rather, that he throws at me.) I figure pasta with red sauce is pretty fool proof as far as kids go. So tonight's dinner was Nigella Lawson's Rigatoni (Penne) al Pomodoro e Prezzemolo. Delicious and done in the time it takes to boil the pasta.

First and foremost I put the water on to boil. Into a pan went six tablespoons of olive oil and a few bruised garlic cloves over medium low heat; the recipe specifies that you thinly slice them. I, however, thought that when I normally make this I just lightly crush a few cloves, so that's what I did. After a few minutes in the warm oil the garlic had begun to take slight color, and my water was at a boil. I salted the water and added the remnants of two boxes (what I thought was about half a pound) of penne I had kicking around the pantry. To the garlic-y oil I added a 15 oz. can of tomatoes. (Sidenote: Nigella specifies a 14 oz. can of tomatoes for a pound of pasta. I find this to be too dry for my taste. Generally speaking I use a 28 oz. can if I am making a full pound of pasta, regardless of the recipe.) I thought they were diced tomatoes, but I apparently can't read. I was slightly surprised to dump the can out and see this.


So I said to myself "Dur dur Meleyna nice one," and used the back of a fork to crush them up. Crisis averted. I added a quarter can of water to the sauce, salt and pepper, and turned up the heat to medium high. Though not exactly clear, the recipe says to let the sauce reduce for ten minutes, which to me means leave it uncovered. Which would result in tomato sauce all over my kitchen. Because I am already guaranteed to clean up what looks essentially like a massacre after Parker finishes eating, this to me doesn't sound like too great of an idea. So I cover the pan with one of those mesh splatter screen things that you use for frying. Keeps the mess to a minimum while allowing your sauce to reduce "until it becomes quite lumpy and oily." Loverly. So the sauce reduced and the pasta cooked and things were working out just peachy. The beautiful thing about this dish is that the sauce takes pretty much exactly the amount of time it take to boil your pasta. As soon as I turned the burner off for the sauce I drained the pasta and tossed it all together in the pan.


The kiddy serving got tossed with frozen peas to cool it down. Mine was eaten straight out of the pan. Verdict? Well, take a look.

Thoroughly enjoyed by Parker, as it always is. As for me? Definitely should have minced the garlic--the flavor wasn't strong enough for me. I also think I ended up cooking more than the intended half pound of pasta, as I thought it was a touch too dry. Overall not bad, just not as good as it normally is. Parker had seconds, even after he finished his dessert of diced Bartlett pears.

And for once, I actually packed up the leftovers. Hooray self control.


Breakfast, anyone?

Bacon and Egg

Linguine alla Carbonara

So despite the fact that losing weight is the lamest and most unoriginal New Year's resolution everrrr, I'm doing my best. (It works out well--I'm pretty lame myself.) So in an effort to lose weight, I've been doing my best to eat breakfast everyday. Today I had what I consider to be a pretty well balanced breakfast: bacon, egg, and starch. Traditional components, yes, though execution was not exactly your classic Grand Slam. Carbonara, my friends.

Every attempt I've made at this dish has been pretty meh. The previous (two I believe?) recipes I've used have included cream and have been waaay too soupy. The recipe I based today's breakfast on didn't include any, and the reviews looked promising. So to begin.

As I didn't have any cured pig's jowl lying around, I stuck to a couple strips of bacon. I must say, I did a fabulous job browning the bacon. Normally it gets too done too quick, but I kept the heat on medium lowish this time and it browned beautifully. I added the onions to the bacon fat and let them sweat over low ehat while my four ounces of linguine (my preferred shape of pasta) was on the back burner. A couple minutes before the pasta finished, I added a good glug of the two dollar Chardonnay my dad's so partial to to the bacon and onion pan. Despite the price tag, no detrimental effect as far as I could tell. (The whole "don't cook with it unless you'd drink it" rule doesn't really apply in this house. If its good enough to drink, drink it.) Bacon and starch taken care of, we move onto the egg. As I was cooking for myself, the base of my sauce was a single egg rather than the three specified. I stirred in enough Microplaned Parmigiano (no Romano) until the consistency looked liked I thought it should (kinda lemon-curd-before-you-cook-it looking). You know, because I'm a carbonara expert. Anyway, I dumped the drained pasta into the bacon-onion-wine juices, swishy swished it around in the pan, and dumped it all into the egg/cheese mixture and broke out the tongs to combine it as evenly as possibly while the pasta was still hot. And as it is coal miner's pasta, I grabbed the pepper grinder and worked my wrist harder than my 16 year old brother. (Ewwww I'm gross. Get used to it.)


Verdict? Delicious. My only adjustments would be to use a touch less cheese and perhaps save a bit of pasta water to thin it out--it was a little thick and cheesey. I think if I had used a touch less Parm it wouldn't have been quite so thick, and the other flavors would have been a bit more balanced. So a tasty breakfast without much effort, using stuff I have lying around the fridge and pantry. And the best part? No cream, so its reduced fat carbonara! Right...
Here's to the New Year.