Shrimp Pasta; it's what's for dinner.

During my college years, one of my roommates was from Milan, Italy. One summer, his parents came to visit for 2 months. (When you live in Italy, and fly in to Honolulu, you tend to make the most of it)
In any case, his mom would cook dinner for a couple of hours every afternoon. Best college meals anyone reading this has ever had!

She didn't speak English, and I didn't speak Italian, but between her italian, and me italianizing my french and spanish, we got along great.

I learned many a pasta tips and plates from her, and some easy and yummy fish dishes too. A couple of interesting things that come to mind:
- They salt their water a lot. Like a hand full of salt worth. They believe pasta should be boiled in saltwater, to give it flavor, and not just a few little shakes of your favorite salt shaker. She would take a spoon of the water to her husband, and let him taste it. He'd then decide if it needed more salt.
- You do NOT put parmesan cheese on any pasta dish that involves seafood. The dish should speak for itself and not require any Parmesano Reggiano. (I always think of the Rodella family when i'm at a restaurant, and the waiter offers cheese to whomever ordered the seafood pasta dish - "what a rookie!")
- The pasta sauce should just coat the pasta. It should not drown the pasta. They would make the sauce (from scratch), boil the pasta, drain out the water, then pour the sauce into the boiling pot, and mix everything together. Then serve the plates from there.
- To avoid water bubbles boiling over, pour some (olive) oil into the pasta water. It will break up the bubbles.
and many more...

>>>> Fast forward to Saturday > > > > > Driving home from Bandera, I was telling Ken this story while we conversed about what we eat during the week. He's on a shrimp kick, so I told him about the pasta i learned how to make by Mrs Rodella.
I wasn't able to shake it out of my head, so yesterday, I bought me a pound of Shrimp, and some Roma tomatoes. A few hours of letting fresh diced roma tomatoes, olive oil, basil, salt and pepper simmer in a pot, and one other secret ingredient, and voila!

Dinner is ready! Simple, yet yummy. At the very least, I hope it's edible. We'll let Erin be the judge when she swings by to pick up her Active Yeast she asked me to pick up at the store.

Note to self: Buy a couple of nicer serving bowls once some disposable income floats my way!