This is one of those dishes that I often cook when I cannot be arsed to do a lot of cooking. Sounds strange? Not really. I love cooking, absolutely love it. It is a great contrast to my day job. Sometimes however, after a long day, you just want some food that tastes pretty decent, and you want it fast. Rather than running down to the closest MSG factory (take-out..), this is something I often cook up. You can pretty much guarantee that you have all the ingredients hanging around, and even if you don’t, substitutions work fine. Frozen shrimp defrosted work fine here. This is no fancy dish, just basic food that is satisfying.

This recipe is actually one from Cooking Light. All of the recipes you see on this blog are going to be my own invention, unless mentioned otherwise. I used to really enjoy Cooking Light. Until about a year ago, I was a subscriber for ages. The food was varied, had some good ideas, and pretty decent for you. To top it off, nothing was really hard to cook, and gave consistently good results. Around the middle of last year though, I found things changed. I started reading my other cooking mag’s more. Delicious (http://www.deliciousmagazine.com.au/) has been a favorite of mine for a while, and can be found here in the US. Jamie Oliver and Gordon Ramsey are regular contributors, and two chefs I have a lot of respect for. Cooking Light was always a close second to this for me. Danika started to get me organized, and we would cut out recipes we liked from CL, and put them in a file. I was happy because I had some new recipes, she was happy because there wasn’t magazines lying around.. Life was good I started cutting out less and less from CL. Something changed. The recipes were different. Not what they used to be. The food in CL seemed like it was becoming a little boring.. a little standard to me. There was lots of stews, and classic American dishes.. but nothing inventive. In the end I canceled my subscription, however I do have a file of decent recipes from this magazine, and a whole bunch of others.

The recipe. This one is simple. Fettuccine is cooked. Onion, garlic, parsley, mushrooms (I used shiitake and white) are sauteed until soft. Chicken stock and white wine are added, and this is cooked for a couple of minutes. Toss in the cooked fettuccine, toss with more herbs (parsley, chives). Sprinkle with some freshly shaved parmesan, and job done. Very easy, very simple, and for a fast Friday meal, not bad!