Destination: Italy ~

The month of February was Destination: Italy over at My Kitchen, My World.  As much as I cook Italian food these days, I couldn’t miss this one!  I could literally load any one of a dozen or more recipes for Italian food from my archives alone.  But..that wouldn’t be fair!  LOL!  So…setting the Hazan family Italian food collection aside, I reached for some of my other Italian cookbooks.  I settled on Williams and Sonoma’s Italian Favorites.

It didn’t take long to find a nice recipe for brunch…eggs, cheese, cream, pasta and some sauteed leeks to pull it all together.  That’s not a bad way to greet midday!  The recipe is titled, “Angel Hair with Eggs, Leeks and Cream.”  Those are pretty much all of the ingredients…you’ll also need butter to saute the thinly sliced leeks, and some Parmesan cheese to mix with the eggs and cream, and that’s the whole ingredient list.  Put the pasta water on, slice and wash the leeks, saute them in the butter, and set them aside when they’re nice and translucent.  Cook the pasta just until it’s barely cooked…a little firmness will disappear before it gets to the plate.  Trust me.  Drain the pasta, and add it to the skillet with the leeks, toss the mixture to combine and stir in the eggs, cream and cheese.  Cook together until the egg is set, but not dry.  Serve with additional freshly grated Parmesan on the side, and you’ve got a great dish!

Tasting Notes~
Bruce was a little skeptical when I asked if he’d like this dish for brunch…but he’s a good sport and said if it sounded good to me, fulfilled a posting need, and I was up for fixing it…knock my socks off!  Then he decided this is a really good dish for brunch, and if I ever feel so inclined again, to please give this another go!  There’s a bit of sweetness coming from the leeks and the cream…and it foils nicely with the pasta salted from the water and just enough at serving time to bring the flavors all the way up.  This is a smooth, creamy, comforting dish.  A bit carb-heavy for midday, but great if you’re really wanting that nap!  It would team really nicely with a bottle of chilled Prosecco as an Italian “champagne” brunch!  I’ll remember that for next time!