Pasta Can Be Easy & Special

Pasta's easy to make, right? Just boil the water, throw in the pasta cook and enjoy. I beg to differ as my friend pasta deserves a little more love and you'll come out with a more satisfying, yet still easy dish.

After a beautiful day in the sun I was craving something fresh, quick but a little more gourmet for a Sunday night. So I turned to my jar of pasta - spinach linguine. And here's how it went:

1. Boil a LARGE pot of COLD water - you need room for the pasta to move around and cook evenly and you need the water to all come up to a boil at the same time. If not, you wind up with those weird uncooked parts that we often just disregard.
2. Once your water is boiling add some sea salt - trust me the difference is something you'll enjoy. Add your pasta and wait patiently. If it's a long pasta like linguine wait for it to all melt into the pot and return to a boil. I find many times people poke the pasta and this is just unneccessary!
3. Cook the pasta until al dente - I recommend everyone taste the pasta every minute between 5-10 minutes that way you learn the difference and can really identify what you want.
4. Pick your toppings! Don't put your entire fridge in there but choose 2-3 "add-ons" and see what works. Tonight I used chopped scallions, salt, pepper, kaseri (a wonderful greek cheese you must try) and a drizzle of olive oil. If you're using olive oil make it the good kind (more to come on this later in the week)

And the result