Blame it on the ah-ah-ah-ah-ah-alcohol

I've really grown attached to cooking pasta sort of like you'd cook a risotto. It takes more attention than the usual method, but the results are charming, particularly when water isn't the only liquid added to the mix. I used the rest of the $3 bottle of red wine from Trader Joe's, along with a little water for volume, to cook spaghetti with thyme, bay, and lots of red pepper, as well as assorted vegetables. Cooking pasta in wine adds a whole other dimension to the dish with zero more effort (Okay, fine, I guess you have to expend energy to take the bottle of wine off the shelf and carry it home along with the rest of your groceries. Happy now?). Using capellini or some other extremely thin pasta would have lessened the cooking time somewhat, but it only took 25 minutes or so to actually cook the dish. I used a couple baby squash that a nice hippie man handed us as we were walking home from the fireworks on the Fourth of July, a couple carrots, a tomato, and some peas (and onion and garlic, obviously), and boy, did it make a pound of pasta go a long way. We're going to be eating this for the next two days, easy. My suggestion for leftovers: Before you pop the container in the microwave, sprinkle a little liquid (water, broth, whatever) on top so that it doesn't dry out, because that gives the surface of the noodles this weird, grainy mouthfeel.

Oh, and then I made this cheesecake.