Recent Posts

Monday, June 7, 2010

Recipe 1.07 - Spaghetti with Cheese and Black Pepper


One day, during a particularly hard day of school, I talked to my friend about feeling overwhelmed. I told her that I felt like teaching was taking up my whole life and I didn't have time to do anything for myself. So my friend told me that I should make it a requirement to include days in my week where I could "do it all." Not only come into work and do a kickass job, but go out with friends after work, see a movie, or do something completely separate from my job. And lately that's what I've been trying to do -- prove to myself that I can "do it all."

Doing it all is tough. And completely exhausting.

That's not to say that I don't like trying to do it all. In fact, I've noticed that I'm significantly happier the days where I know I have plans afterschool or had a good time the night before. But even though I tell myself I'm doing it all, some things do fall to the wayside when you try to incorporate fun and craziness on the weekdays. Like cleaning. Or laundry. Or cooking anything that requires more than half of my attention.

This recipe is the cure for my silly attempts at having a life outside of school. Not only is it quick, but you can make a ton of it at the same time, and you don't really have to go out and buy ingredients since most (and by most I mean all three ingredients) are things you would likely have in your kitchen anyway. I usually make this when A) I've gotten home too late on a Sunday night to cook anything elaborate for the upcoming week of work, or B) I've stopped at home in between school/going out and need a quick bite before heading out again. It's also a nice recipe since once you read this blog post, you will never have to read the recipe instructions again. It is that simple.

So enjoy this post as I attempt to figure out how I will go to work everyday, see a movie, buy a bike, build a machine for my students, have dinner with friends, go to the bank, cure cancer and save kittens in trees.

Spaghetti with Cheese and Black Pepper
From the Smitten Kitchen. Since apparently I don't read any other cooking blogs.

Serves 4

1/4 cup olive oil (I did not measure)
1 pound spaghetti (use white spaghetti...I tried with whole wheat and it wasn't quite the same)
2 tablespoons butter
4 ounces grated Pecorino Romano cheese, grated (once again, I could not bother myself with measuring
Salt and pepper

1. Bring salted water to a boil, and cook spaghetti to your liking. Drain pasta, and reserve 1 1/2 cups of the pasta cooking water.

2. In a saucepan, heat over oil until almost smoking. Then, put in pasta and 1 cup of pasta water. Apparently this is supposed to splash you, but it hasn't happened to me yet.

3. Remove pot from heat, and add butter, cheese, and ground pepper. Mix ingredients together, adding more of any of them to taste. DONE!

0 comments:

Post a Comment