I’ve made a shift in my diet whereby I’ve cut down on meat. Less poultry, less beef and pork. I will never go “veg”, I don’t want to go “veg”, I like meat too much.

I eat alot more seafood, I’m eating more whole wheat bread and I prefer fruits to desserts. Pasta is another type of food I adore. All one has to do is visit one of the premier Italian producers of pastas’ websites and one could try out a new dish for each day of the year.

I like my standard pasta dishes – they are a form of comfort food but with  “quick delivery”. Most good sauces are ready before or on time when your pasta is “al dente”.

Here’s another one of those dishes, as shared recently on one of Christine Cushing’s shows (Food Network Canada). The show’s focus was on oils and this dish is all about quality ingredients, like olive oil.

Go on….PRINT THE RECIPE FROM HERE….got it? Good!

Now get a pen and paper and jot down some recommendations for this dish:

• use a good extra-virgin olive oil
• good, ripe tomatoes (cherry or roma work well here)
• use fresh basil leaves. Don’t go & use that dried basil that’s been sitting in the back of your pantry. If you don’t have any, make this dish another time
• use those tiny baby eggplants (if you can find them). They have little or no seeds, no bitterness and they are remarkably sweet
• make your own breadcrumbs. I cringe when I think of how many times I bought breadcrumbs from the market that resembled sawdust more than breadcrumbs

Making your own breadcrumbs is very easy. You throw your stale/old bread in the food processor and whiz it up until you’ve reached your desired texture. Next your place in in a baking tray/pan and place the breadcrumbs in a pre-heated oven of 300F. Bake off until the breadcrumbs feel dry and then just turn off the oven, leave your breadcrumbs to dry out further. Throw the breadcrumbs in a zip-lock bag (or other airtight container) until needed.

Finally, you might be wondering…who’s Nina? I’m not sure but the title sounds funny and it’s an Italian slang: Pasta Cu L’agghia (pasta Koo Log-Ya) simply means “pasta with garlic”.

I love this dish. It help me out with last week when I craved something different yet Lent-friendly, the sauce is a raw sauce ie. no cooking and the breadcrumbs pay homage to “cucina povera”, when many Italians couldn’t afford to grate cheese on their pasta. Breadcrumbs were the poorman’s grated cheese.

These are tough times, many people are unsure of the future but we’ll all work through it. Here’s to hope, eating well and making the most of what we have.

Think about it…life is still pretty damn good!

If you are not reading this post in a feed reader or at  http://kalofagas.ca then the site you are reading is illegally publishing copyrighted material. Contact me at truenorth67 AT gmail DOT COM. All recipes, text and photographs in this post are the original creations & property of the author.

© 2007-2009 Peter Minakis

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© 2009 – 2010, Peter Minakis. All rights reserved. If you are not reading this post in a feed reader or at http://kalofagas.ca then the site you are reading is illegally publishing copyrighted material. Contact me at truenorth67 AT gmail DOT COM. All recipes, text and photographs in this post are the original creations & property of the author.