Pasta my favorite carb!

Hobby of the day: Cooking 

P.S. This does not include the tortellini in the freezer

I heart pasta! Truth!  I loved being in Italy, pasta all the time, pizza, cheese, bread.....mmmm....and I didn't gain a pound....fast metabolism, not really, but LOTS of walking!! Plus hot days = no weight gain. If I tried that here, the lbs would be packed on.


The other night I wanted to make a pasta that was little more springy and maybe a little more healthy.  I didn't however use whole weight pasta- shame on me I know.  It's better for you, but it just doesn't seem to be able to absorb the flavors like white four pasta. Maybe that's just my opinion.  


Usually when I cook I use, penne or angel hair pasta (my favorite). This time I decided to cook linguini.  You know, the thicker flatter pasta, not to be mixed up with lasagna noodles :-).  I wasn't sure what  I wanted to mix into it.  I wish Gary like seafood. I would have so many more possibilities. He might just have to suck it up one of these days.  Sometimes I can wiggle in shrimp. 

I bought sun dried tomatoes.  I wish I had purchased them in oil to give the pasta a little more moisture.  
Ingredients:

• I chopped up 1/4 cup sun dried tomatoes

• Sauteed up 2-3 cloves of chopped garlic in 2 tablespoons of EVOO

• Then I added about a 1/4 cup of chopped parsley- it's what I had on hand, I would have added basil if we had enough of it(next time)

• I also added about 1/2 tsp of red pepper flakes for some heat

--I also made some garlic bread- Gary's request. No, I didn't make the bread from scratch.  I went a little LC(low class) and used hot dog buns. Added butter and some garlic with a sprinkle of salt (we didn't have garlic salt- add improvisation) and topped with, what else?! MORE cheese!  I'm telling you we are a cheese family!


Boiled my linguini in salted water for 8-11 minutes, until al dente
Then tossed in linguini to my saute mix - I had planned on adding some lemon zest since I thought it would go nicely with my parsley, but forgot (again, next time)
Added some freshly ground black pepper and of course had a nice big block of Parmesan cheese to be grated on top.

I loved the color with the green specks mixed in with the red of the sun dried tomato. Gary enjoyed it which = success.  I didn't mind the parsley, but I think basil would work so much better.

Note: I applied waaay more cheese than necessary, but I didn't take a picture of that because it wasn't esthetically pleasing, but it was taste wise:-)

This little one knows where to hang out during dinner- she's waiting for me to drop some goodies- "As if!"  She was waiting under Gary, but someone eats a lot faster than yours truly.