Sometimes the simplest dishes look the most fancy

    This week someone told me that it must be easy for me to not have cereal or other packaged foods for dinner because i love to cook and take the time to do so - true enough, but it is not the meals that take me a long time to prepare that are the ones that people usually rave about. Sometimes it really is the simple things that people love the most.

    Take this new recipe that i came up with this week - smoked salmon pasta. Sounds fancy, right? Truth is, boiling the pasta was what took the longest!

    Start by bringing a big pot of water to a boil. I used penne, but any type of pasta will work - read the package to see what a serving size is - figure out how much you want to eat - but most importantly, measure it out, because pasta is one of those things that if you dump into a pot you can go from 400cals to 1200 without really noticing. Keep an eye on the pot and add the pasta when the pot boils.

    While the pot is coming to a boil, slice up an onion, some garlic, and zest up some lemon:

    Cook it up in a little olive oil until the onions soften and the garlic smells super yummy.

    Next you want to take a couple forkfuls of capers (i use a fork because they you don’t get the liquid you do from a spoon), a little bit of parm, and a couple slices of smoked salmon (side note: don’t put smoked salmon on a wooden cutting board, it is really really hard to get the oils out - but it did look pretty, huh?)

The pasta should be close to being done by now (try a piece to see). Using a laddle add a little bit of the pasta water in with the onion-garlic-lemon mixture then drain the pasta and add it into the pan stirring everything up. Add the salmon, capers, and parm and stir for about another minute then serve.

    It really is that simple - and about a 15 minute dish (if you don’t count the time it takes for the pot to boil). Recipe can be found by clicking here or you can just eyeball it, because really the best dishes are the ones that you don’t have to think about, the easy throw it together ones.