A relationship with pasta

I am in love with pasta. It is one of the things that can cheer me up on any given day, be it penne, fusilli, linguine, or fettuccine (you don't expect me to name all types of pasta, do you?). I'd rather eat pasta than rice, to be honest. In fact, pasta is the first thing I look for on any restaurant menu. The more unique the pasta, the better; especially those with vegetables, magnifique! Le poulet comes second.

I've tried cooking a couple of pasta dishes myself. Whenever I like a particular dish from a restaurant I've visited, my brain automatically tries to identify the ingredients needed to recreate it. And recreate dishes I have! Although not as good as the original restaurant recipe, of course. Dishes like Cibo's penne al telefono and Mary Grace's creamy salmon pasta I have recreated so many times.

 Cibo's Penne al Telefono  image source

Mary Grace's Creamy Salmon Pasta

Then there are days when my recreations or experiments would fail me. There was a time when I have attempted to include cream dory and It didn't fit in with the rest of the dish. It broke my heart to waste such a beautiful and delicious fish.

But when I am in doubt, there are a few ingredients that I always use to create a really good meal and these are: basil, garlic, olives, and bell peppers. A new favorite of mine is the eggplant, a revelation, really.

I think I've made it clear how much I love pasta. J'adore les pates! I leave you now with a photo of a lovely pasta I had for lunch (courtesy of Mike). Not sure what it's called, but it's basically made up of my favorite ingredients sans olives and bell peppers. But it's really good, light and delicious.