Baby Steps to Better Cooking, Courtesy Italy

Since I experienced Italian food, I have a completely new appreciation for ingredients and simple cooking -- and it's not just because I upped my wine consumption.

I've always been a fan of basic dishes -- I'm the person who couldn't follow a recipe if my life depended on it and hates cooking anything with more than five ingredients -- but the country inspired me to get more creative on my own and not stick to the basics I've mastered. This means I walk into the store, pick out a protein based on what looks good, and compose from there. Admittedly I pretend I'm walking around Florence's mercado centrale. And it works!

Last night's example: The catfish filets looked good, which reminded me we wanted to pan-fry fish using Brian's grandmother's skillet. Easy -- throw in little olive oil and garlic and we're done. At the store I decided to pair the fish with roasted vegetables, which I seasoned on-the-spot with garlic powder, onion salt, coriander and mustard powder. For a starch, I took jasmine rice and mixed it with black pepper, coriander, cumin, a little cinnamon and salt.

OK, so maybe it's not Italian, but it's something.

Other dishes since I've been back: homemade pesto with Tuscan bread; homemade bruschetta with Tuscan bread; Tuscan bread with pecorino romano cheese, arugula and truffle oil (mimicking a sandwich I had in Florence); and ... yeah, other things with Tuscan-style bread, and then some.

Last night I used lemon fettucine from the Cinque Terre co-op and tossed it with shrimp, olive oil and garlic I had sauteed. And it was wonderful. I felt Italian! I patted myself on the back.

None of this is original (except for the roasted vegetable seasoning combo) but it's original for me. And I probably wouldn't have gotten to this point if I didn't have as much free time or as flexible of a schedule as I do now. I know I sure don't have enough patience or creative juices left in me at the end of a long work day to walk into a store and let the ingredients guide me.

Until work picks up or I join a company full time, I'm going to try to stick to it. Hopefully food-on-a-whim will become habit. We shall see.