Really, do! When I sat down in front of this tasteful beauty the other night I thought that really, there is no place in the world like Italy for food. The whole world is amazing, and each place has its peculiarity. I think that is the case with Italy and food. Every region has its tradition and different recipes, but the file rouge is they are all orgasmicly tasty, and at the same time healthy. This is something that differentiates ours from French cuisine. It's good, but it is very heavy. To make an example they use much more butter than is used in italian cuisine, which uses olive oil instead. The French paradox is that for which French people have nice bodies despite their "fat" diet. And the reason is that they drink much wine, which is a great anti-oxydant. You can find linguine with shrimps saute with white wine anywhere in the world's top restaurants, so I won't try to pass it like an Italian recipe. But what I'm saying is that in Italy people would cook this at home on a very common night, like it's not a big deal. We love food since we are born. I loved the cartoon animation movie Ratatouille because it stresses two very true concepts: 1. Eating well is VERY important, and; 2. Anyone can cook! So here is the RECIPE! I did not quote any QUANTITIES because I never get the point. It depends on how many and how hungry you are, and still there is never a RIGHT quantity. Just mix the ingredients as you feel, and if there is too much or too little, the next time you fix it. No fear, It's not like you're building a bomb! So, take a big (or big enough to fit the shrimps) pan, put some olive oil and one or two pieces of garlic cut in two (to ensure you don't get a bad breath, cut the garlic in half along the long side, and remove its 'soul' the long thingy that goes through it - you'll see it when you cut it! Go go surgeon!:) Put the fire at three quarters power and wait until the garlic becomes slightly golden and you can perceive a pleasant smell. Then put the shrimps (that you have previously washed and dried) into the pan. they will slowly turn red. Keep the fire up enough to make them shhhhhh, but not so high that the shrimps jump out and run away. When they become pink you can add some white wine. like a half glass spread on the shrimps. Here I used a Santa Margherita Chardonnay, which I feel like suggesting cause it made a good match, but it's up to your taste! In the meantime make water boil in a pot. When boiling add a punch and a half of rocky salt and drop the pasta! I like to use linguine for this because they give me greater satisfaction, but you can use any long pasta (Spaghetti, Spaghetti alla chitarra etc.) but no fettuccine please! HOW LONG SHOULD THE PASTA COOK FOR? Please don't make her get out of the pot and come and call you. Pasta should be cooked "al dente". It's not hard anyway, just look on the pack and the cooking time should be written there (no it really has to be written there). Anyway, it could be between 8 and 12 minutes. Yesterday I cooked some super long spaghetti coming from South Italy that took 14 minutes, but that is a rare exception. Don't do like a Norwegian acquaintance of mine who cooks spaghetti for 20 minutes, really please cook something else! So you probably know that when the spaghetti are ready (you can test them anyway) you should drop the water in a scolapasta (no idea how to translate - that thing with holes that separates the pasta from the water. At this stage you drop the linguine in the pan and make them jump and shout with the shrimps for a minute or two with lively fire. READY TO ENJOY!!

I love to plan/cook for a dinner party. We had 6 good friends over for our traditional New Year's Cioppino meal. The Menu: Appetizers: Parmesan Crisps with Goat Cheese; Gruyere Gougeres Cioppino with Red Wine (featuring lots of fresh Dungeness crab, mussels, clams and shrimp) Baby lettuce salad with blue cheese, dried cranberries and a balsamic vinagrette Fresh sourdough bread Pasta (to soak up the soupy cioppino broth) Molten chocolate cakes with raspberries, dusted with powdered sugar Wine, wine and more wine Irish coffee (the famous San Francisco Buena Vista cafe recipe) and of course..... champagne at midnight (yes us old folks actually managed to stay up until midnite....) Sounds like a simple menu but I was in the kitchen most of the day. The open bottle of Tractor Shed Red wine was used in the Cioppino. I considered sipping some while cooking, but decided against it - don't worry I more than made up for it later ! Hope your New Year is filled with good friends, fun and laughter - just the way we started !