Spaghetti al Vino Bianco

Tonight I tried another recipe from the April 2012 edition of Cook's Illustrated : Spaghetti al Vino Bianco. Basically, the recipe calls for you to cook the pasta in white wine and then toss it with crispy pancetta, arugula, cream, cheese and toasted pine nuts. This recipe went fairly well. Well, more than fairly well. I would definitely make it again!

I was excited because I had all the ingredients and was able to throw it together last minute for my best friend and her brother, who I invited to dinner like an hour before. I was really thankful that the recipe was so easy to put together. I do suggest, however, eating the pasta on the same day ande white it's hot. I can imagine that the arugula would taste extra wilted and water logged the next day. Also, once it gets colder (I just tasted some leftovers) the flavor of the wine is so pungent. I don't know much about wine but it definitely matters what wine you pick to do the recipe because you will taste it loud and clear. I put in a tablespoon of sugar to balance out the flavor after I made the initial white wine reduction.

Some things I would consider doing differently: 1. do a better job toasting the pine nuts. They weren't crispy enough and I think the recipe could have really used it. 2. Make sure the pasta is really hot when you add the pancetta so it heats through. I think I took too long waiting to add the pancetta (cause my friends weren't here yet) and it tasted a little chewy (just a little) when it would have been better crispy.

Anyway, the presentation looked pretty! I served with a caprese salad and some roasted artichokes (that I didn't make).

I was then so happy that I could serve some toasted cinnamon bread for dessert!! I gave one loaf to my boyfriend but I had another loaf left and it was a BIG hit... which, once again, surprised me, since I thought that the mistakes I made and step I missed would have somehow negatively affected the bread. I'm very glad that it didn't!!

Off to conquer my next recipe this week. Hopefully I'll make chicken tikka masala and curried vegetables tomorrow! I also got stuff to make bread pudding. This would have me cracking into the cookbook....not just the magazine. Very exciting. I'll have to come up with a method that will help me work through the book in some kind of orderly fashion.