Hello everyone! After consulting foodtv.com and searching for guidance from Rachel Ray, I found a recipe for a simple pasta! The dish is called Penne Puttanesca. Puttanesca is a very flavorful and spicy pasta sauce. Once I cleared the recipe with my family I headed off the the supermarket! After refusing to let my mom accompany me to the store for help, my heart began to sink when I was confronted with over 10 types of olives to chose from. All I had written down on my shopping list was "olives." Luckily I had my cell phone, so I called my brother to find out what olives I needed. Since I assured my mom that I was old enough to shop on my own I absolutely could not have called her for help! As I approached the checkout stand and began piling up my groceries I realized that I had forgotten the key ingredient! ANCHOVIES! "Oh God," I thought to myself as the belt moved my groceries closer to the cash register. Being your average, somewhat insecure and easily embarassesd teenager, I was afraid of looking "wierd" by making it known that I needed to buy anchovies. After all, let's be honest, anchovies ARE thought of as gross. I mean, everyone who has ordered anchovie pizza must have felt a little odd doing so. I stopped for a moment to think over my options.
1. I could wait until all of my food got to the register and then tell the cashier to hold it while I got my very much needed canned and salted fishies
2. I could grab all of my food of the belt and exit the line as inconspicuosly as posssibe
3. I could buy all of my groceries, put them in my car, and then come back and buy the anchovies with some other groceries
You're probably thinking that the first option is the best because it is the most rational, and buying anchovies isn't that embarassing! In retrospect I would agree that the first option was the best. However, I decided that it would be the least embarassing to recollect all of my groceries and exit the line. This created more of a fuss that I thought it would. I ended up holding up the line because it took me so long to collect my items. After mumbling appologies to everyone and simultaniouly bumping into them as I left the line, I rentered the canned foods section. I grabbed the anchovies off the shelf, turned around to leave, and bumped into a girl about my age that I didn't know. I mumbled an appology, and walked away with my little anchovies.
When I got home it was about 4:30, so I decided to begin making my sauce. If you are at all discouraged by the thought of melting down anchovies to put in your sauce (like I was) I sugest that you think of them this way: they are 90% salt and are used to add a salty flavor to your sauce (not a fishy one). After I prepared my sauce I started cooking my pasta. A tip my dad taught me was to cover the pot you're cooking your pasta in so that it cooks faster. Once my pasta was cooked I emptied out some of the excess water leaving about a cup in the pot.
At 6:30 it was meal time. I wish I could say I was confident that this dish would be a succes, but I wasn't really sure. When my dad walked into the house and asked me "what smells so good?" I was so excited that I grabbed his arm and brought him over to my frying pan. With a swish of my hand I swept off the top of the pan... actually I tried to pick the top of the pan up by the sides instead of using the handle, like any expierienced cook would do, and got minor burns on my fingertips, but that's not a huge problem. I cringed and passed my dad a spoon full of sauce, and waited anxioulsy for his reaction. At first he smiled and gave me a thumbs up, but the he got a nervous look on his face and reached for a glass filed with water. "Damn," I thought, "It's probably way to spicy." It was way to spicy, but luckily I had made enought pasta to distribute the sauce in a way that did not make it taste as spicy as it was.
In the end my first day as a teen chef was a success, and by success I mean that nobody felt the need to order pizza in place of my food. I hope that all of you aspirng teen, adult, and kid chefs try this recipe and tell me what you think! Maybe even share some of the experiences you had while making it. It is truly a tasty recipe if you are sure to measure the amont of red pepper flakes you add. I can't wait to write to you tommorow about my experience with making tequila-lime fettucini!
Here is the link to the recipe by Rachel Ray! I hope you enjoy!
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/rachel-ray/pasta-puttanesca-recipe/index.html
