Dinner... with nods to Jamie and Giada...

Last night we managed to get home at an unreasonably early hour thanks to the general sloth of our co-workers (meaning one didn't bother to come in, one was in California, presumably recovering from an Oscar party, one's last day is on Wednesday and one was sequestered to jury duty)... this was the perfect opportunity to make dinner! I had been perusing Jamie's Italy (Jamie Oliver's new cookbook companion to his Jamie's Italy tv show that the MOM got me for Christmas) and had seen a picture of these really neat looking "silk purses" (i.e. big handkerchief sized pasta) in pesto sauce. I had been inspired and when I was battling the Mongolian horde of food shoppers at Wegman's on Sunday I picked up the necessary ingredients... or at least the best I could do. I had to substitute Pappardelle for the silk purses, but either way the end result was a really nice looking dish.

I made the pappardelle, in a pesto sauce with fresh cut grape tomatoes tossed in with a little grated parm on top... Adding the tomatoes was my own thing because who doesn't like those little baby tomatoes? (Leda, but Leda doesn't like any tomatoes.... she's the exception which proves the rule). As an accompaniment I roasted asparagus (very thin ones!) in olive oil, salt and pepper and then wrapped the asparagus in prosciutto. (Giada's recipe!)

Tonight: Time permitting we'll be having angel hair pasta with italian sausage in a lemon artichoke pesto (with sauteed artichoke hearts). We may or may not have graffiti eggplant on the side, I have to see if I can find any creative recipes... but don't fret. The rest of the week is looking like (i) tuna-- though lemon pepper tuna with capers, on toast, (ii) frozen manicotti and (iii) frozen pizza. One can only muster so much culinary stamina during the work week.