Ok, so I didn't really cook. Our Whole Foods recently started selling fresh local pasta*. A couple of weeks back we tried some ravioli, which was awesome but expensive. I compare everything to the price of meat,** and this was like if we had shared a free range, boneless, skinless chicken breast. But again, awesome. So then we went back to try the cheaper unfilled pasta.
It comes in sheets and they cut it there, so I was like, "Can I get two people's worth of something like a fettucini?" And the teenager working the booth was like, "I don't know it by name, I know it by size." Uh... so fettucini sized? I pointed to one of the example pastas and he cut the spinach sheet into these ribbons.
I don't get exposed to much fresh pasta. I threaten to learn to make pasta, but don't follow through. It was incredible. Really tender without being soft, and it cooked quickly. This spinach pasta tasted way more spinachy than dried, too.
It cost us just under a buck a serving (we asked for two people's worth - because I have no idea - and got three meals out of it). So for the cost of a box of decent dried pasta, we got three meals of incredible pasta. So, in terms of spaghetti, way more expensive, but in terms of dinner, cheap as hell.
I dressed it up a bit with leftover basil cream sauce and some parmesan. With a salad, it made a great meal.
*I'm not so much saying, "Run out to Whole Foods and buy this," as much as I'm saying, "get your hands on some fresh pasta."
**ok, not everything, just foods. Can you imagine? "I want to buy this shirt - let's see, it's the cost of 4 pounds of ground chuck..."