Tonite's Dinner... something new

[gayathri]

Something about cooking, or even planning to cook, makes me really happy.

Tonite, I'm going to try Pasta with Whole Cloves of Garlic, aka: Maccheroni alla San Giovanniello.

(From: How to Cook Everything, by Mark Bittman, page 133)

I should be reading over a requirements review for work, but I'm UNMOTIVATED!

1/3 cup olive oil or butter
10 cloves garlic, lightly crushed
1/2 cup prosciutto or other salted ham/ slab bacon -- cut into cubes or strips
6 plum tomatoes, or 1 1/2 cps drained canned tomatoes

salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

1 lb cut pasta, such as ziti or penne
1 cup roughly chopped fresh basil leaves
1 cup freshly grated romano or parmesan cheese or a combination

1. Bring a large pot of water to boil.
2. Combine oil, garlic and ham in a medium to large skillet over medium-low heat. Cook slowly, stirring occasionally, until the garlic becomes deep goden, nearly brown, all over -- 10 to 15 min.
3. core and chop plum tomatoes, or crush the canned tomatoes, and add them, along with salt and pepper to the skillet. Stir and simmer while you salt the boiig water and cook the pasta.

4. drain the pasta when its tender but firm, reserving a little of the cooking water and adding it to the sauce if it appears too too dry (quite likely if you've used fresh tomatoes). Toss the pasta with the sauce and most of the basil and cheese. Mince the remainig basil and garnish pasta and serve.


We never ate the balsamic romaine salad yesterday, so tonite, we'll have that. If I werent making this for P, I'd open up a bottle of a good hearty red wine to go with it. Yum!

Comments

[lil-brown-bat.livejournal.com]

I've done something kind of like this for years. It's almost a carbonara, minus the scary raw egg and plus some tomato. Heat olive oil, add chopped-up smoked slab bacon, cook until about halfway done, then add the garlic (or it'll get overdone), cook a bit longer until it's just starting to get done, then add some red pepper flakes, cook a bit longer, a few tablespoonst tomato paste for color, remove from heat, toss with pasta, sprinkle on grated parmesan, eat, yum.