Quick Italian Dinner!

It's so easy to make delicious dinner if you just have the right ingredients in your kitchen. Lately, I've decided to eat and cook mostly at home instead of eating out all the time. I've had some more time at home I guess, but mostly just got so tired of eating out. Cooking at home is great: it's saves money, it tastes fresh, it's fun, and it's so much healthier than fast food, that's for sure.



I've been eating a lot of pasta lately, just because I have so much that I've bought and it's about time I got rid of it. Pasta really isn't just tomato sauce out of a jar. Cook it with some olive oil, garlic, lemon juice and fresh grated parmesan-- mmmm! At the same time, the truth is that it doesn't always taste restaurant quality. It could be a bit bland or dry and not as impressive sometimes, but honestly, I think it's worth it! I've been improving as I practice more, and it's fun being your own cook.



Staring with appetizer, this is the easiest and quite "Italian" appetizer ever. Sweet and soft cantaloupe wrapped in salty and savory prosciutto. I had this in Rome and now you can have it at home. You can get the prosciutto from any deli or supermarket. The combination is heavenly, and it looks quite posh. ;)



For pasta, I made something I saw out of a cookbook while I was roaming around Chapters. It was simple enough for me to remember so here I made it. I had to alter it quite a bit, though, since I didn't have the exact ingredients. But that's fine too! Here is my quick and dirty recipe. I'm sorry I don't have the ingredient list, because I'm not quite sure of the measurements. I just grabbed stuff as much as I thought I needed.

Simple Spaghettini with Soft-Boiled Egg

directions

1. Boil Water. Add pinch of salt. Cook pasta al dante. I also put my egg in the boiling water so that I save time. But make sure you don't overcook the egg like I did. You want the egg to be soft-boiled, not hard-boiled. :(
2. While cooking pasta, wrap whole clove of garlic in foil and bake it in the oven for 7-10 minutes, or until it is roasted and fragrant.
3. Drain pasta, but save pasta water.
4. In a large pan, heat milk and pasta water. Add bit of salt. Add the garlic (out of its wrapping and smashed with the knife). Stir and cook over medium heat. Add diced tomato or for extra flavour, sundried tomatoes. Generously sprinkle olive oil.
5. Stir in the cooked pasta. Add baby spinach. Grate lots of parmesan cheese. Sprinkle bit of parsley.
6.Place onto plate. Top with soft-boiled egg and sliced pecorino cheese. Some freshly ground pepper.

VOILA.



Anyways. It was delicious. Clap clap clap. And now, what to do with the stack of dishes in my sink....