Bring on the Carbs

One of the very best things about marathon training is the final week, when you are required to consume vast volumes of carbohydrates. Last night I made pasta with shitake vodka sauce, adapted from this recipe.

Pasta with Shitake Vodka Sauce

5 garlic cloves, smushed with flat side of knife
1/4 cup olive oil
2 T butter
2 shallots, diced
1/3 lb. shitake mushrooms, de-stemmed and sliced up
1 large can (28 oz.) diced San Marzano tomatoes
1/4 tsp. crushed red pepper
1/3 – 1/2 cup vodka
1/2 cup heavy cream
1 lb. pasta (I used gemelli, penne is too hard to stab with a fork)
1/2 cup parmesan cheese plus extra for serving.
salt and pepper

Coat bottom of BIG saucepan with olive oil and heat on medium high. Once oil is hot, add garlic, shallots and mushrooms. Start pasta water boiling. Stir around until mushrooms are soft and have decreased in size. Add tomatoes, turn up heat and boil for two minutes. Turn down heat to vigorous simmer (I used a very vigorous simmer, indistinguishable from a boil, but whatever) and add vodka and crushed red pepper. Add pasta to boiling pasta water, continue simmering sauce while pasta cooks. Just before pasta is finished, fish out the garlic cloves and throw them away. Add cream to sauce. Remove pasta from heat and drain. Add drained pasta and butter to sauce and boil over high heat until sauce is clinging to pasta and not all liquidy at the bottom of the pot - just a minute or so. Add salt and pepper to taste. Remove from heat, add cheese, and serve.



In the interest of adding some sort of nutritional value, I also made Barefoot Contessa Roasted Asparagus

Spread asparagus on cookie sheet (trim or peel tough ends), coat with olive oil, salt and pepper, roast in oven at 400 degrees for 15-20 minutes. Remove from oven, sprinkle generously with parmesan cheese, put back in oven for a minute or so. Delicious! Be sure to pick the parmesan crispies off the bottom of the pan and eat them too.