Pizza & Pasta

There is nothing as purely satisfying as a big bowl of pasta. I find myself craving its uniquely soft, slightly chewy texture and ability to encompass flavors more than any other food. Pasta is also the great fail-safe for hungry people who don’t know how to cook. In high school, when I could barely operate the oven, I could still manage to throw together a fairly decent spaghetti puttanesca for myself, if I was desperate.

My father’s entire culinary repertoire consists of dummied-up store-bought pasta sauce (if you don’t count his admittedly delicious tuna-salad recipe). Unlike most food, as any lazy college student will tell you, even badly prepared pasta can still be pretty delicious—although a trip to Italy will quickly disabuse you of any notion that your linguine with butter is as good as it can get.