If you do any reading of food blog or magazines or watch more than one show on the Food Network you get some of the same mantras over and over ad infinitum.  They include but are not limited to:

• don’t cook garlic on too high a heat.  It will burn and be bitter.
• when zesting a lime or lemon only take off the thinnest colored part of the skin.  The white pith is bitter.
• use the best ingredients you can afford.  I never know what that means.  I think for me it is use the best I am willing to pay for.
• Always think in a high pitched almost mock Italian when thinking about prosciutto, parmigiano or spagitti.  (You know I know how to spell spaghetti.)

Giada De Laurentiis is a force.  Food Network loves her and over the years she has kind of come into her own and become more like …herself.  I don’t like to watch her so much as I feel like her falsetto Italian words are grating the edges of my soul.  I do have one of her books however and we’ve made good work out of several recipes inside so I suppose I can’t complain about her too much.  Maybe I’m just jealous.  Z requested this recipe from everyday italian  last week when he was sick with a sinus infection.  His happy place in comfort food is noodles.   Buttered noodles, ramen noodles, macaroni & cheese, Alfredo, etc.  We had a package of Prosciutto in the freezer along with a bag of orechiette in the pantry from our last Trader Joe’s run in Sarasota.  Combined with fresh wedge of parmesan we were off to the races.  This book is nicely Italian in that it isn’t ingredient heavy.  This is basically pasta, olive oil, bread crumbs, prosciutto & parm.  All things we regularly have around even if nothing is waiting for their use.  It’s a half hour type recipe.  The ‘sauce’ for the pasta comes together while the water comes up to a boil and the pasta cooks.  I threw in some steamed broccoli and a bottle of Lambrusco (also from TJ’s) to round it out.   A side note about the TJ’s orrechiette-it isn’t my favorite.  It’s a bit too cupped and even is a huge pot of salted water they tend to stick together into little stacks of hats which I don’t love.  Sometimes you get what you pay for.  The cookbook though, is an easy reader and the recipes come from that happy Italian place where they sit around the table every night to something luscious and comforting.  Dinner is served.