When Dinner Becomes Four Lunches

Last night, the special was Whole Wheat Linguine with Ricotta, French Beans, and Lemon from Giada de Laurentiis' cookbook. First of all, let me say that I should have cut the recipe in half. I now have lunch for the next four days. Although, given how much my grocery bill was this week, not buying lunch this week is probably not such a bad thing. Last night's dinner also took much longer to prepare than Sunday night's. The recipe called for a 1/2 pound of french beans, "halved, lengthwise." Halved, lengthwise - as in julienne. Has Giada ever SEEN a french bean? Each one is about 1/8" to 1/4" thick, and she tells you to HALF each one. There were a 1/2 pound of them. Since I am not a Cordon-Bleu trained chef, nor do I have the knife skills of one, this took me much longer than I'm sure it takes Giada. Multiple times, I almost gave up and just tossed the whole beans in the pan. But I wanted to follow the recipe exactly, so I halved, lengthwise a 1/2 pound of french beans.

The whole wheat linguine, after being boiled, is tossed with part-skim ricotta, then added to sauteed french beans. Halved grape tomatoes are added at the end and tossed with the pasta. For added flavor, lemon zest is grated over the pasta. The pasta was really light, salt and pepper adds a little more flavor and brings out the lemon zest a little. It's a good thing I liked it since I'll be eating it every day for the next week.

Tonight, I made Balsamic Barbecue Chicken, also from Giada's cookbook. The recipe was actually for the balsamic barbecue sauce. The sauce was good. I'd probably make it again for a barbecue party, but just for me, barbecue sauce in a bottle is good enough.

What I've learned more than anything while making these last three recipes, is that my kitchen is severely lacking in equipment. I have learned I need a food processor, mortar and pestle, large bowls, large saute pan, small glass mixing bowls, and much more. I've begun making a list for our registry and the more recipes I find, the longer and more obscure the list becomes.

Stay tuned for my last recipe of the week: Orzo-stuffed peppers.