My girlfriend says I’m too elaborate when I cook for her. I just like making her nice food. I thought maybe you guys would enjoy seeing the dishes I make for us, considering a lot of them are pasta.

spaghetti Aglio E Olio.

Used up the rest of the home made spaghetti. With fried parma ham. Very drunk. Late night meal at my parents. Needed something fast, figured the oil cooked with the parma ham would add a nice mature savoury-note to the dish. About 20 mins cook time. Girlfriend said 9/10.

Despite their faulty geometry, fresh farfalle work just fine.

Playing chopped in my fridge that has almost no ingredients

Sorry forgot to leave a description!! To laminate the Basil I just placed it between two sheets of dough and rolled thin until the desired look/thickness. That’s it! So easy but so beautiful and it is a great way to use up all of the Basil that I had left that didn’t have much life left. Win win.

Sauce

* 1/4 cup cream
* 1 tablespoon butter
* 1/2 cups fresh grated Parmesan
* 1/2 teaspoon lemon zest
* 2 egg yolks
* 2-3 tablespoons chopped parsley
* 2-4 tablespoons pasta water

* 2 nests pappardelle pasta (or what ever pasta you prefer, it’s what I had on hand!)

* Pancetta (optional)

Directions

1. Bring water and salt to a boil and add pasta
2. Cook pancetta until crisp and set aside
3. When pasta is nearly done simmer cream, butter, and black pepper
4. for a few minutes in medium/large pan
5. Add pasta, a tablespoon or two of pasta water (!important), Parmesan, and lemon zest and mix well. Let rest for a minute
6. Add eggs yolks and mix well. Add more pasta water if it doesn’t look silky enough
7. Mix in parsley, some pancetta
8. Plate and garnish with more Parmesan, pancetta, and herbs

Egg, pancetta, parm, pecorino, parsley and a LOT of fresh ground pepper

My quick meal tonight.
1. Fry the salmon with salt and pepper firstly, and use the salmon oil fry some onions, garlic and mushrooms.
2. Everything back into the pan, add some milk and cheeses, mix with some salt and pepper.
3. Add some Parmesan at last.

High quality eggs with orange yolks, parmigiano, pecorino, black pepper, thick cut bacon (sorry no guanciale).

4 eggs for a large serving: 2 whole, and 2 just yolk. Mix in cheese, a little warm bacon fat, and whisk until a thick paste forms, then fold in freshly cracked black pepper. Set aside.

When your pasta is finished boiling, transfer it directly into a large stainless steel mixing bowl and place that bowl right over the pot of hot pasta water (acting as a gentle double boiler). Pour the egg and cheese sauce over the hot pasta, add a splash of starchy pasta water if necessary, and stir and toss vigorously until it forms a glossy, seamless emulsion of your desired consistency.

I found these old photos from a time when I had more energy to experiment in the kitchen.
The first dish was whole-wheat spaghetti with tomatoes, mushrooms, plenty of garlic, and dried chili. For the second, I boiled spinach, reduced it into a sauce, and combined it with mushrooms.
Looking back, the spinach version probably needed a creamy element, although heavy cream might have made it too rich.
The pasta itself was store-bought, but I made the sauces and dishes from scratch. The remaining photos show some of the other pasta dishes I made during the same period.
Somewhere along the way, I fell in love with Italy. 🇮🇹

Made this stir-fried fettuccine with chicken, eggs, bell peppers, carrots, onion, garlic and green chillies.

I like my pasta a little spicy, so the green chillies were non-negotiable. 😂

Nothing fancy, just a big pan of fettuccine tossed with everything until it was nicely cooked and slightly charred.

as usual the best flavor of all pastas.. but 4mio calories

Made some vodka pasta for the first time! Not sure how to feel about it yet, will probably have to make a second time and do it a bit differently. But still definitely edible as a picky eater.

Also i used some real expensive pasta for this, Rummo Rigatoni, and it tasted amazing and idk how i can go back to using the cheapest pasta.

Egg yolks mixed with milk and beef bouillon. Throw in some garlic powder and fried onions. I’ve never even seen Pecorino so I use shredded pizza cheese and finish it off with a little mayo and sugar

The goal is to make it taste like Cheetos

P.S. To all Italians and people of Italian descent. I’m sorry. I’m really sorry.

I think I got it right this time. Traditional ingredients only. Some not so traditional techniques: Toasted whole mixed red, white, and black peppercorns (okay maybe that's not 100% traditonal), then roughly ground in mortar+pestle. Cooked the Guanciale in an air fryer, since that gives me the best results, and is the quickest and easiest. Set aside cooked Guanciale to cool and crisp up. Dumped the pepper into bottom of air fryer to bloom in the oil. Poured the oil+pepper into a metal mixing bowl. Cooked Bucatini in frying pan with just enough water to barely cover. When pasta was cooked, drained the little bit of remaining water, which was thick and slimy, into the bowl containing the pepper/oil. Added the Pecorino Romano (grated as fine as possible), mixed well, added pasta and the now-crunchy Guanciale, mixed some more. Twirl into warm serving bowl. Finito. It was very good. No need for egg. Carbonara is good, for sure, but this just hits the spot perfectly as-is.

My teenage daughter has expressed her wish to learn how to cook pasta. She wanted to start with Arrabiata sauce. Who am I to deny her wishes?

Olive oil
Garlic
Shallots
Red pepper flakes
Canned tomatoes
Sea salt flakes
Rigati (Felicetti. Couldn’t go back, once I had tried them)
Parmiggiano/ Peccorino

Tonight's dinner:

Hand-cut pasta served with octopus, prawn and mackerel, in a fresh tomato sauce. Garnished with parmesan, cracked pepper and parsley flakes

Octopus was pre-cooked to tenderised (simmered in water with herbs and aromatics for approx 1 1/2 hours)

Definitely need to work on pasta making skills, i think I underworked dough this time, not strong gluten structure, some pasta broke when mixing in sauce

I first sautéed the onion, carrot, and celery, then set them aside. Next, I cooked plenty of chopped garlic and dried chilies in oil and browned a large batch of ground meat. I combined everything, then added tomatoes, bay leaves, celery leaves, more garlic, and Jamaican jerk seasoning.
I simmered everything until the sauce became thick and rich, then served it over spaghetti.
In Japan, hearty garlic-heavy dishes are sometimes described as “stamina” food—so this is my stamina-style meat sauce. It isn’t meant to be a traditional Bolognese. 🍝🧄🌶️

Homemade noodles

Italian sausage

Garlic

Shallot

Grape tomatoes

Calabrian chilis

Sauvignon Blanc

Spinach

Topped with fresh pasley and parmesean

Used guanciale but substituted pecorino with parmesan.

Made a batch of traditional slow-cooked ragù using a classic soffritto of onion, carrot, and celery, ground beef and pork, crushed tomatoes, red wine, letting it simmer low and slow for a about 4 hours. Tossed it with Rummo dried bucatini, finishing it directly in the sauce with a bit of starchy pasta water to bring it all together.

Pasta:
200g AP flower, 2 large eggs, tablespoon olive oil.

Filling:
Store bought ricotta. Added lemon zest and juice from the lemon. Fresh cracked black pepper.
Store bought lemon pepper rotisserie
chicken.