Night of Culinary Firsts

Tonight I ventured to make a dish called

"Sicilian Anchovy Pasta with Toasted Breadcrumbs"

suggested by Feast: Food + Entertaining and compliments of Taste Buddies!

My first First was learning how to set my camera on Manual to take great food photography. This is going to be a new hobby of mine. I tried to get a little practice in, but here are my First Tries:

Taste Buddies is an Australian Food Blog, so tonight was actually the first time I had ever heard of a brown onion. I panicked, hoping that I could find one in the grocery store. Turns out it is a yellow onion covered by it's brown skin.

Silly me.

I also poached my first egg tonight!

I actually poached 4 of them, and they all turned out splendidly.

It's all about the whirlpool...

Tonight was also my first encounter with anchovies that were not already prepared in Caesar dressing.

They are pretty nasty look & feeling & smelling.

But they sure added some yum to my pasta!

I also sweated onions for the first time.

Just let them sit in oil on low heat for about 5-6 minutes in a large frying pan with a lid.

[This is a picture of them after the garlic and chili flakes had been added and "stir-fried" in.]

And this is just a picture of my final creation.

The poached egg is truly the perfect topping.

I was surprised by how rich this dish is. Maybe pair it with wine and eat it slowly with lots of friends!