{Moosewood Monday} Pasta Valenzana and a Blog Hop

Believe it or not, this was the very first (real) meal I ever cooked when I was living on my own. I purchased my first cookbook, Moosewood Restaurant Cooks at Home, opened right up to this recipe, and figured I’d give it a go.

Looking back now, I think it was pretty ambitious of me to start out with a recipe that included shrimp, dry sherry, and saffron. Quite obviously, my parents were still paying my food bill.

I remember being absolutely amazed by how good it turned out. Moosewood cookbooks have been my favorite ever since, and I still adore this pasta.

Saffron is the star here. I freakin’ love saffron. I would probably put it in everything if it wasn’t $25 a bottle. And by bottle, I mean a few tiny strands inside a foil baggie, tucked inside said bottle.

Whenever I cook with saffron I like to spout off a bunch of random facts about the spice. My husband is sooooo over it. But I’ll share them with you, because they’re fun!

• Saffron is the most expensive and precious spice in the world.
• Each saffron strand is actually the dried stigma of a small crocus flower.
• It takes 80,000-90,000 flowers to produce only one pound of saffron.
• And the stigmas have to be harvested BY HAND.

Maybe I’m a nerd but I’m fascinated by all this.

I follow this recipe pretty much as it’s written in the book, although I let it cook for longer than instructed. The original recipe only calls for about 5 minutes of simmering time for the sauce, but I like to allow more time for the flavors to meld. And oh how they meld.

Don’t forget to link up your recipes at the end of this post. I want to see your vegetarian (or seafood) recipes!