A beautiful setting makes a simple pasta dinner luxurious.
Simple and Delicious Pasta
Add a Crispy, Fresh Salad and Warm Bread
“Life is a combination of magic and pasta”…….Federico Fellini
Pasta has gotten a bad rap, and carbs are the culprit. One of the most satisfying (not to mention simple and economical) meals to entertain family and friends with is a pasta dinner. Italians eat approximately 60 pounds of pasta per person, per year! There is something for everyone with over 600 varieties of pasta available on the market today. Aside from the traditional durum wheat flour there are dozens of alternatives: low carb, gluten-free, noodles made from brown rice, quinoa and sprouted wheat. For the paleos, vegetarians and vegans you can try spiralized veggies like carrot, beet, sweet potato and zucchini that mimic the pasta experience. Having experimented with many of these, with varied results, I would urge you to lean into a good quality, traditional durum, or semolina organic wheat flour noodle. Combine it with lots of veggies, some light fresh sauce and sprinkle with a little parmesan. If you don’t drown it in cream sauce or load it up with cheese, you can actually end up with a healthy addition to you family’s diet. Pasta also provides an endless recipe bank to rely on. Here we made a simple spaghetti with fresh tomatoes and basil from the garden and tossed in some oil cured black olives and reggiano parmesan. Mother nature provides the magic that Fellini mentions, making this meal seem positively luxurious.
There is a great scene in the movie “Eat, Pray, Love” where Julia Roberts sits down, in an outdoor cafe in Italy, to a plate of pasta. Without guilt and with Italian opera blaring in the background, she devours the meal with complete abandon. The pure enjoyment she reaps from that meal is persuasive. So toss together some pasta, add a crispy salad, warm up some crusty bread, pour some delicious wine and you have the stuff that food dreams are made of. Don’t forget the Pavarotti!
Pasta Dinner with a View
