Wine Me and Dine Me

My Hot Subletter left me two bottles of wine, one of which I drank with a friend a couple weeks ago, and the other of which has been occupying the bottom shelf of my fridge, a sweet and sad reminder of my piece of hot Russian beefcake who occupied my home and heart for 8 weeks. Siiiiigggghhh.

I decided to stop moping and break it open this afternoon when, after 3 days of solitary confinement due to being disgustingly sick (and having finished 88 episodes of "30 Rock"), I finally ventured back into the world of cooking. Inspired by a recipe for Spring Vegetable Pasta from a recent issue of Cook's Illustrated, I uncharacteristically decided to wing it and make some veggie pasta on the fly. This would not be particularly interesting if it weren't for the fact that instead of boiling the pasta in salted water, as one would expect, I decided to take the hint from Cook's and first toast the pasta in olive oil, then add my Hot Subletter's white wine, and finish cooking it in chicken broth. This was yielded a totally delightful and unexpected result--angel hair pasta, light and fluffy as a cloud, that is completely permeated with the flavor and aroma of white wine, with the savoriness of chicken broth. It is really delicious. Had I been making a heartier pasta (a penne, or something similar) I would've also had a nutty flavor from the toasting part...but the angel hair pasta (incidentally also left behind by my angel Hot Subletter) cooked so quickly that I missed out on that part. Oh well. That's for another time, I guess.

Then, I sauteed some garlic in olive oil, added some young asparagus from the Farmer's Market, some peas, red chile flakes, and lemon zest, and a lovely, simple but delicious pasta was born. I was totally off the grid--inspired by the recipe's suggestion of toasting and cooking the pasta in wine and broth--but followed my instincts alone on how to finish the dish. It yielded fantastic results, and I am just keeping my fingers crossed that I'll be able to trust my instincts so completely when it comes to my dating life, too...because I'm jumping back in the pool, as of tomorrow. My 6'6" Economist is taking me out for burgers tomorrow night...so let's keep our fingers crossed that he's as nice and normal as he sounds. A part of me is still hung up on my Hot Subletter (as if you couldn't tell) but just as I wasn't going to let that bottle of wine linger forever in my fridge, I can't leave myself on the shelf for too long, either. After all, if he wants me he's going to have to come and get me because damnit, I'm worth the trip!