phyllo pizza with smoked mozzarella and roasted cherry tomatoes

One of the golden rules of entertaining is to never use your dinner guests as guinea pigs. Use recipes that you've made at least once before to avoid any surprises or flops. The last thing one needs at an already stressful time is to find out that hey, that should have been a teaspoon of baking powder not baking soda, or perhaps that fritter didn't need the extra egg. Save yourself some headaches and just try it out before hand.

Of course, since I'm saying this it should be patently obvious that I disregarded all of those things.

Nor did I follow the recipe.

Thankfully, it was more delicious than I could have ever expected it to be. It was probably one of the easiest, tastiest recipes I've tried in the last year.

I can hear you right now, though. "Phyllo pizza? You want me to use those paper-thin sheets of pastry surely sent straight from Hades to make us pull out all of our hair? It tears at nary a glance, let alone picking it up or brushing it with butter! Wars have surely been started over this temperamental devil-food!"

Have no fear, my dears. If thawed properly phyllo dough is a breeze to handle. And by thawed I don't mean using the recommended directions of letting it sit overnight in the refrigerator. That's going to give you a cold, gummy mess that will make you feel like tearing your hair out. And let's leave that pretty coif alone.

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garlic scape spaghetti carbonara

This was the first application for the recently arrived garlic scapes. They added a perfect amount of freshness to the typically heavy dish without deviating from the traditional flavors too much.

I did learn the difficult way that I must remember to not salt the pasta water for carbonara, however. So take that as a lesson learned from my experience - unless of course you feel the need for a salt lick in your life.

Carbonara is great served with a light salad on the side. Or perhaps your entire vegetable drawer to make up for the decadence of pasta, eggs, cheese, and fatty pork.

Nevertheless, it's worth it.

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Parmesan Orzo

This is easily one of my favorite preparations with orzo. It highlights the toothsome quality of the uniquely shaped orzo and highlights the quality of the parmesan cheese used. It's a nice balance of an orzotto and a baked pasta.

It's so simple to make that it can be easily accomplished on a weeknight and makes a great accompaniment to nearly any meal.

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